Mark Winger Archives - Forensic Files Now

Mark Winger: Life in Supermax

His Heart Will Go On
(“A Welcome Intrusion,” Forensic Files)

In recent prison mugshots, Mark Winger looks more like a department-store Santa or an organic food co-op manager than a killer.

Mark Winger no longer looks like the clean-cut small-town husband and dad he once was. — The formerly clean-shaven Mark Winger in an undated photo from mugshots.com

It seems that the onetime nuclear engineer from Springfield, Illinois, has lost just about everything except hope.

Two of the last three blog posts, starting with Mark Winger: No Great Catch, cover his life from his days as a small-town father and husband with a $72,000-a-year job to his time spent orchestrating the double-homicide and murder-for-hire plots that ultimately landed him in supermax for life.

Conspicuous consumption. Winger’s story left off in 2007, when a judge rejected his contention that he’s just a lovable victim. Winger explained that he was merely managing his anger when he did such things as verbalize his desire to cut out DeAnn Schultz’s tongue (and that’s just the tamer part of his reverie regarding his ex-girlfriend) for testifying against him.

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This week’s post offers a glimpse of Winger’s existence since then, in an update to the Forensic Files episode “A Welcome Instrusion.“

Although audio tapes captured Winger complaining about becoming ill from a “meat sandwich” served in prison, it looks as though he’s been able to find ample culinary delights.

The 5-foot-10-inch formerly small-framed prisoner now weighs in at 215 pounds, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections, which also notes he has an eagle tattoo on his left leg.

Winger tried to make the most of his time in captivity by mounting a legal fight over where he can exercise. His litigation in its various incarnations dragged on for years.

The prison, Tamms Correctional Center (he was later moved to Menard), had not been allowing him to exercise outside his cell. He alleged that forcing him to stay in his concrete-walled bachelor pad all day constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Winger also contended that Illinois law restricted such limitations to 90 days.

Exercising authority. At some point during his incarceration, he also complained that running in place and doing jumping jacks in his cell caused his knees to hit the wall or bunk, sit-ups made his bed too sweaty, and the floor was too dirty for push-ups.

Back in 2006, Winger had contended that his exclusion from the exercise yard caused him “physical illness, depression, and panic attacks.”

Court papers noted that intent is essential for liability under the Eighth Amendment and there was no indication of malice toward Winger and no evidence the exercise restrictions caused his alleged psychological problems.

In 2013, a Chicago U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling that defeated Winger’s suit. That seems to be the last of Winger’s efforts to shake things up from his home in a maximum security institution.

Happier times: Winger with his wife, Donnah, and his parents. — Winger with his first wife, the late Donnah Brown Winger, and his parents, Jerrold and Sally Winger

Professor’s insight. In other Winger-related news, I stumbled upon some interesting academic research online that suggested that, in some ways, Mark Winger’s case was typical of husbands who kill.

In “Monstrous Arrogance: Husbands Who Choose Murder Over Divorce,” Davidson College professor Cynthia Lewis identifies a number of ways in which Mark Winger’s actions after the crime fit a typical pattern. Winger:

1) Used the 911 call as a means of setting up his alibi. “I found this man in my house,” Winger told the operator. He also claimed his baby was crying as an excuse to get off the phone so he could shoot Roger Harrington again.

2) Visited the police to find out how the investigation was going, despite that he was not originally considered a suspect. Other wife killers, Lewis notes, have tended to check in with neighbors and family members to see what they know about the progress of the investigation. “He’s fishing for clues about suspicion toward himself,” according to the author.

3) Capitalized on his loss to gain sympathy. Winger took “his sense of injury one step beyond emotional loss to financial gain,” Lewis writes. Indeed, he profited by Donnah Winger’s $150,000 life insurance payout. “But even more pronounced about Winger — and a major element tying together spousal murders that circumvent divorce — is the arrogance he displayed in suing Harrington’s company [Bootheel Area Rapid Transportation], a move perhaps related to cultivating the image of the bereaved husband,” Lewis concludes.

Mark Winger, still smiling — Mark Winger in a photo from his current home in Menard Correctional Center in Illinois

Talking points. So it seems the man of science who thought he was smart enough to annihilate — without consequences — those who stood in his way, is in many aspects just a typical violent criminal with more in common with his 3,203 fellow Menard inmates than he probably likes to think.

One more note: The Perfect Patsy by Edward Cunningham contains transcripts of Winger’s conversations with Pontiac Correctional Center inmate Terry Hubbell. Some of the book’s content is available free online.

As murder-for-hire dialogues go, these are actually a little tiresome to plow through. They’re riddled with repetition and passages noting unintelligible spans of tape. But there’s enough incriminating conversation to ease the minds of any folks still worried that Winger is just a good guy victimized by the system. — RR

Note: This concludes a four-part series on Mark Winger. To read the earlier posts, you can go to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

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Mark Winger: Survivors’ Epilogues

Fallout from a Nuclear Engineer’s Crimes
(“A Welcome Intrusion,” Forensic Files)

Last week’s post and the one prior looked at Mark Winger’s two murder schemes (one fulfilled, the other failed) and the efforts of law enforcement to ensure he spends the rest of his days at the mercy of a prison commissary account and Nutraloaf.

This week’s post is devoted to epilogues for some of the people affected by the former Springfield, Illinois, nuclear engineer’s 1995 slaying of Donnah Winger and Roger Harrington:

• SARA JANE and IRA DRESCHER, Donnah Winger’s mother and step-father, took comfort in philanthropy. They raised $42,000 to build Donnah’s Playrooom in Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, in 1998.

donnahs-fund-crop At that time, they still believed Roger Harrington was the hammer-wielding killer. Once the truth about their son-in-law came out, the Dreschers turned their attention toward domestic violence.

They established Donnah’s Fund at the Women in Distress shelter in Broward County, Florida, to help victims pay for security deposits, furnishings, and babysitting once they exit the facility and start anew.

In a 2010 story in the Happy Herald, the Florida publication noted that the Dreschers made themselves available to speak to organizations about domestic violence.

P.S. You can also read a couple of nice tidbits about the Dreschers’ work by way of a 2008 post on an eclectic blog I came across. John Connor’s convoluted (in a good way) recollection tells of how his random purchase of a 1964 souvenir record album eventually connected him with Sara Jane Drescher.

Rebecca Simic with the children from her marriage to Mark Winger — A Southeast Outlook clipping of Rebecca Simic and children from her marriage to Mark Winger. Bailey is at top right

• REBECCA SIMIC, whom Mark Winger married after hiring her to care for Bailey, the baby girl he and Donnah Winger adopted, seems to have kept a low profile since he went to prison in 2002. A Southeast Outlook story provided a few details about her life since then.

The 2012 article in the newspaper, a publication of the Southeast Christian Church, reported that Simic’s marriage to Winger had been a happy one. According to the piece by writer Patti Smith:

“They were active in their church, and Winger did construction projects as a volunteer around the building. Simic said she believes Winger’s conversion was real. She never suspected him until he was sent to prison for life and she asked for a divorce. His letters, she said, were threatening and hostile.”

After the 2002 trial, she immediately moved to Louisville, Kentucky, along with Bailey — whom Simic adopted — and the other two girls and boy she shared with Winger.

In a 2016 interview with the Southeast Outlook, Simic said that she’s begun to open up more about her history as a means of giving moral support to other single moms.

She explained life as a onetime spouse to a murderer:

“No one seems to think about the family when someone is incarcerated,” Simic said. “I call them living victims. It’s a humiliating, embarrassing role to play, although you have done nothing wrong. That spouse is alive but dead to the family.”

As so with the earlier story, the more recent article asserts that Winger threatened Simic’s life when she took steps to end their marriage.

Despite everything, she says that the whole experience has strengthened her religious faith and that she’s grateful to have brought up Bailey.

• DOUG WILLIAMSON and CHARLIE COX were lead detectives on the case, starting with the deaths of Donnah Winger and Roger Harrington. Williamson appeared on both Forensic Files’ “A Welcome Intrusion” in 2003 and 48 Hours’ “Invitation to a Murder” in 2008.

In more-recent years, it seems, life has not gone so well for Williamson. He failed firearms training and left the police force in 2011.

Doug Williamson during a Forensic Files taping

As of 2014, he was locked in a conflict with the city of Springfield over a disability claim, as reported in the Illinois Times.

Williamson, whose father and brother also were police officers, said the job brought on post-traumatic stress disorder and made him unable to function in his position.

Investigating murders, including one involving the suffocation death of an infant, gave him disturbing dreams and night sweats and caused other trauma, he said. (Interestingly, San Antonio detective Alfred Damiani, featured in an earlier post, said that baby cases were part of the reason he left his homicide division.)

The city countered that Williamson’s problems stemmed from his drinking and willful wallowing in memories of homicide cases. He went on vacation with the surviving family of Donnah Winger.

Charlie Cox, it seems, has had an easier time. He retired as Springfield chief of police in 2009.

He later appeared in Final Witness. The 2012 TV series featured reenactments with actors along with real-life interviews of those involved in cases. The episode Cox participated in, “The Devil You Know,” told the story of Mark Winger’s double homicide.

• RALPH HARRINGTON the father of Roger Harrington, lived until the age of 73 in 2010 — long enough for him and his wife, Helen, to see Mark Winger convicted of not only Roger’s murder but also the jail-yard plot to kill DeAnn Schultz and the Gelman family in 2007.

Next week’s post will provide the latest blips on the Mark Winger radar screen from the maximum security Menard Correctional Center. Until then, cheers.

Update: Watch a 20/20 episode produced in 2021 that includes interviews with Donnah Winger’s parents and sisters and Bailey (now an adult), Rebecca Simic, and her other three children with Mark Winger.

Read Part 4: Life in Supermax.

Mark Winger: 19 Pages of Sociopathy

Quite a Murder-for-Hire Micromanager
(“A Welcome Intrusion,” Forensic Files)

Last week’s post told of how Mark Winger leveraged his reputation as a respectable middle-class husband and father to pull off a double homicide with impunity — but only for six years.

Mark and Donnah Winger — To friends, the Wingers’ marriage seemed ideal

On Aug. 29, 1995, the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety engineer murdered his wife, Donnah, with a hammer and shot to death a hapless young man named Roger Harrington. Then he told police he killed Harrington because the 27-year-old suspended airport-shuttle driver invaded his home and was attacking his wife.

Winger profited by Donnah’s life insurance policy and basked in public sympathy and his new status as a hero who valiantly confronted a deranged killer.

That party ended in 2001, when police opened a new investigation that unwound Winger’s story and landed him in prison for life.

Tempting tale. The story of the Mr.-Perfect-gone-psycho drew interest from the entertainment media. The ABC-TV drama Silent Witness dedicated a 2012 episode called “The Devil You Know” to the Winger crimes. CSI: NY featured a 2006 episode, “Open and Shut,” loosely based on the case.

Celebrity attorney F. Lee Bailey included Winger in his 2008 book, When the Husband Is the Suspect, written with Jean Rabe.

And as mentioned last week, true-crime genre shows Forensic Files (“A Welcome Intrusion“) and 48 Hours did a great job of covering the Winger saga in 2003 and 2008, respectively.

For today’s post, I’d like to detail how, in the time span between those two broadcasts, Winger managed to obliterate any lingering doubts about his guilt.

Budding bromance. It seemed that Winger wasn’t enjoying the daily grind of the Pontiac Correctional Center and wanted a way out that didn’t involve digging a tunnel.

Pontiac Correctional Facility — Pontiac Correctional Center in Pontiac, Ill., was Winger’s first, but not last, prison home

At some point after his stay commenced in 2002, he established a rapport with another inmate.

Unlike Winger, Terry Hubbell lacked a degree from the Virginia Military Institute and didn’t come from a family prominent enough to land a wedding announcement in the New York Times.

But the biographies of the two men overlapped in that each had beaten someone to death, in Hubbell’s case, a teenager named Angel Greenwood, in 1983.

Eliminate them all. Winger asked Hubbell to execute a murder-for-hire project intended to exonerate Winger and exact revenge on those who had offended him. According to an Illinois state court document filed in 2011:

“In May and June 2005, [Winger] approached Hubbell in the recreation yard and mentioned his desire ‘to get rid of a witness in his case.’ Defendant [Winger] named the witness as DeAnn Anderson or Shultz. Hubbell initially blew it off ‘because everybody that is in prison pretty well says they would like to get rid of a witness in their case.’ Hubbell stated the issue came up ‘repeatedly’ and he eventually contacted a private investigator who worked on his case. Hubbell hoped to receive consideration for himself. In June 2005, Hubbell received a written plan from defendant [Mark Winger]…”

Winger’s 19-page handwritten note called for a hitman to kidnap Jeff Gelman — a well-to-do childhood friend who had declined to bail Winger out of jail in 2001 — and extract a huge sum of money in return for promising not to hurt Gelman’s family.

Terry Hubbell received $3,250 for helping investigators — Terry Hubbell, a lifer Winger met in prison, received $3,250 for helping investigators

That jackpot would pay for the kidnapping of DeAnn Schultz, Winger’s former lover and a witness for the prosecution. Schultz would be forced to write and record statements saying that she lied during the trial and Winger was innocent.

Another provision in Winger’s plan, as paraphrased by Donnah’s step-father, Ira Drescher, during his 48 Hours interview: “Oh, by the way, if there’s any money leftover, kill Ira Drescher also because he’s the son-of-a-gun father-in-law that I dislike.”

Grave expectations. Winger also wanted Gelman and Gelman’s family killed once they came up with the cash. The hitman would murder Schultz, too, but make it look like suicide.

The hired killer would need to follow elaborate instructions every step of the way. Winger’s plan specified, for example, that the hitman ensure that the only fingerprints on Schultz’s suicide note and its envelope would come from Schultz herself and only her DNA could be found on the stamps and flap of the envelope.

Given Winger’s past crimes and his background as an engineer, the elaborateness of the blueprint doesn’t seem too surprising. But his belief that he could phone in a plan with that many moving parts does. It sounds like a job for a team of CIA agents and Navy Seals, not some freelancer hired sight unseen.

Also, in his fixation on the details, Winger seemed to forget the larger picture. Once the hitman received the ransom from Gelman, what would keep him from taking the money and running? Why would he risk committing all those capital murders?

Snippet of Winger's detail-oriented master plan — Snippet of Winger’s detail-oriented master plan. A prison guard photo-copied the document and then had Terry Hubbell give it back to Winger.

And wouldn’t investigators connect the dots between the Schultz, Gelman, and Drescher murder victims? No one but Winger would have a motive for seeing all of them dead.

In the end, Winger hurt no one but himself with his intricate scheme.

No Johnnie Cochrans. In the resulting 2007 trial, Winger claimed that his plans were just a fantasy, fueled by anger over his belief that Springfield police detectives had lied about his murder case and that his conviction was in part politically motivated.

He also blamed his own bloodthirsty reveries on the dehumanizing conditions at maximum security prisons. “They are warehouses of men, but they’re also insane asylums,” Winger said.

Winger characterized Hubbell as a “sly fox” whom he feared. Hubbell was scamming him, he alleged.

Apparently, Winger’s parents couldn’t or wouldn’t help him get a lawyer for this, his latest trial. Livingston County public defender Randell Morgan represented him.

In a twist, a special agent who had helped arrange for Hubbell to wear a concealed recording device while talking to Winger in the prison yard ended up testifying for the defense. Casey Payne said that Hubbell came forward in the first place only because he wanted his mother’s phone bill paid and a transfer to another prison.

The jury took three hours to convict Winger.

As reported by Chris Dettro in a State Journal Register story, Morgan asked for a minimum sentence, arguing that no money changed hands between Winger and Hubbell and that none of the kidnap-murder plans came to fruition.

In his presentencing statement to Livingston County Circuit Judge Harold Frobish, Winger insisted he was a sociable soul, not a sociopath. “I love people,” Winger said. “The only thing I love more than people is more people.”

Nerves calmed. Frobish handed Winger — then 44 years old and already serving two life sentences without parole — two sentences of 35 years. The judge called him a “threat to the public.”

Sara Jane and Ira Drescher, Donnah Winger’s mother and step-father, had no idea their beloved son-in-law harbored murderous thoughts

Donnah Winger’s mother, Sara Jane Drescher, told 48 Hours that the additional sentence eased her worries that her former son-in-law would go free if a technicality caused the murder convictions to be overturned.

Ira Drescher recalled looking at Winger in chains after the trial and telling him, “Your miserable life is over.”

But here at ForensicFilesNow.com, Mark Winger’s story will continue in upcoming weeks with a postscript on his latest maneuvers from his super-max cell and an update on the lives of some of the survivors, including second wife Rebecca Simic.

Until then, cheers.

Update: Read Part 3: Mark Winger: Survivors’ Epilogues

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Mark Winger: No Great Catch

Diabolique, American Style
(“A Welcome Intrusion,” Forensic Files)

If I ever brought a guy like Mark Winger home to meet my parents, they would have died.

Of ecstasy.

“A nuclear engineer for the state of Illinois,” I can hear my mother saying in awe. A graduate degree and solid job would be a nice parcel of news to relay to the extended family in Miami Beach.

Mark Winger around the time of his first marriage.

Winger also seemed to have a nice personality — mild-mannered and friendly. And to top it off, he was, according to some reports, a first cousin of the actress Deborah Winger.

Unbeknownst to Donnah Brown and her approving parents, however, Mark was no prize.

Donnah, a medical technician, married him in 1989. By 1995, he was having a secret affair with her best friend. The Wingers had recently adopted a baby girl named Bailey, and Mark’s apparent plan was to get rid of Donnah, marry her friend DeAnn Schultz, and keep the baby for the two of them to raise.

To accomplish his goals, he devised the most foolproof-seeming murder scheme ever portrayed by Forensic Files.

Favorite half hour. “A Welcome Intrusion” is my favorite Forensic Files episode of all because it illustrates how a) the surface only tells half of the story, b) even the most stable-appearing family is just a house of cards, and c) people who get away with murder — literally or figuratively — just can’t stop pushing their luck.

The story of Mark Winger’s crime was also featured on 48 Hours in “An Invitation to a Murder.” It included interviews with Donnah’s mother and step-father, Sara Jane and Ira Drescher, who supported their son-in-law up until the evidence grew impossible to refute.

And later, even when it turned out Mark Winger was plotting against Ira, the way that the couple seemed utterly without vindictiveness toward Winger was admirable.

But all this is getting ahead of the story. Here’s what happened:

Winger, who up until 1995 had been an in-law-pleasing pillar of society, grabbed a chance to put a diabolical plot in motion after his wife’s chance encounter with a young man suffering from psychiatric problems.

Roger Harrington, 27, an airport shuttle driver, had driven recklessly and muttered some disturbing thoughts during a ride Donnah took from Lambert International Airport in St. Louis to the couple’s home in Springfield, Illinois. At Mark’s urging, she wrote a letter of complaint to the shuttle service owner.

The company suspended Harrington.

Deadly ruse. Mark Winger, 32, then lured Harrington to the Winger home on August 29, 1995, under the pretense of wanting to smooth things over.

When Harrington showed up, Winger shot him in the head.

Donnah, 32, ran into the room to find out what the commotion was. Winger beat her about the head with a claw hammer.

Then he called 911 and, doing his best impression of a hysterical grief-stricken husband, blamed the carnage on Harrington.

“I just found this man in my house. He beat my wife…He’s lying on the floor with a bullet in his head…,” Winger said in a breathless state of rehearsed melodrama. “Yes, I shot him — he was killing my wife!“

Both victims died of their injuries without speaking.

They bought it. Winger wanted the world to believe that Harrington was a deranged malcontent who invaded his home to seek revenge — by bludgeoning Donnah to death for making him lose his job — and that Winger shot Harrington to halt the attack.

Winger’s plan worked.

The authorities and the media believed him. Shortly after the crime, a Sun Sentinel article by David Nitkin reported:

“‘How [Harrington] got into the house, we don’t know,’ Springfield Lt. Bob Shipman said…Mark Winger was exercising in the basement when he heard his wife’s body thud to the floor…[Mark Winger] grabbed a 45-caliber pistol and shot Harrington fatally in the head. Police said Harrington had a history of mental illness, and that Mark Winger shot in self-defense and will not face any charges.”

It’s not clear whether Winger knew this in advance, but Springfield Police Det. Charlie Cox was already familiar with Harrington. Years earlier, Cox had to break up at least one physical fight involving Harrington and Harrington’s then-wife. (Cox owned the trailer park where the couple lived.)

It established a pattern of violence, giving police all the more reason to accept Winger’s story without question.

A beautiful mourning. Winger received $25,000 from a fund for crime victims and a $150,000 life insurance payout, according to a Chicago Tribune story by Linda Rockey. The grieving husband wrote a letter to a local paper thanking residents for their support during his ordeal.

He resumed his life, hiring a nanny, Rebecca Simic, to care for Bailey. He married Simic (instead of DeAnn Schultz) and converted to Christianity for his new bride. The couple added three more children to their family.

The Dreschers stayed loyal to Mark Winger, and they remained part of one another’s lives.

But Winger, apparently feeling that $175,000 wasn’t payment enough for committing a double homicide, sued the shuttle company. Bootheel Area Rapid Transportation, however, wasn’t going to just hand over the millions Winger demanded, and began its own investigation.

Springfield police reopened the case in 1999.

Denouement. Evidence of the deception trickled in. DeAnn Schultz told investigators about her relationship with Mark and that he had talked to her about wanting Donnah dead, although at the time she didn’t take him seriously.

Lead detective Doug Williamson, a member of the Springfield Police Department who had always harbored doubts about Winger’s narrative, now had a second chance to examine evidence. The original placement of the bodies — visible in rediscovered Polaroids — contradicted parts of Winger’s story to police.

After reviewing Winger’s 911 call — which picked up the sound of Harrington moaning in pain — and talking to a neighbor who had heard gunshots, investigators concluded that Winger hadn’t immediately fired his gun twice at Harrington as he’d claimed but rather waited 5 minutes in between shots.

“My baby’s crying, my baby’s crying. I’ve gotta go,” he told the operator on the 911 tape before hanging up and using the gun a second time to finish off the already incapacitated Harrington.

Hard cell. Investigators also turned their attentions toward a note found in Harrington’s Oldsmobile. It listed the Wingers’ address and “4:30,” suggesting that, rather that showing up unexpected, Harrington was attending a prearranged meeting. Harrington’s roommates said they remembered his receiving at least one phone call from Winger.

In 2001, Winger was indicted, arrested, and held on $10 million bond. He asked his friend Jeffrey Gelman to put up the money, but the successful Florida real estate developer declined.

In 2002, a jury convicted Winger of two counts of premeditated murder.

Now Mark Winger was once again a great catch — this time for the criminal justice system. He received life in jail without parole.

Oh, there’s more. That’s where the Forensic Files episode, made in 2003, ended, but Mark Winger stayed busy dreaming up other, even more complicated murders that he hoped to phone in from his new home at Pontiac Correctional Center in Illinois.

Next week’s post will detail his failed but frightening attempt and another will discuss the fallout of Winger’s crimes on the survivors. Until then, cheers.—RR

Update: Read Part 2: 19 Pages of Sociopathy

Tag: Mark Winger

Mark Winger: Life in Supermax

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Mark Winger: Survivors’ Epilogues

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Mark Winger: 19 Pages of Sociopathy

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Mark Winger: No Great Catch

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