On this episode, Payton and Garrett delve into the unsettling case of Bianca Rudolph, a woman whose dream safari ended in death.
People.com - https://people.com/safari-murder-larry-rudolph-dentist-killed-wife-son-speaks-out-8419252
ABC7.com - https://abc7.com/larry-rudolph-dentist-lori-milliron-bianca-killer/14206970/
Justice.gov - https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/lawrence-rudolph-sentenced-life-federal-prison-murdering-his-wife-zambia
NYTimes.com - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/us/larry-rudolph-murder-wife-zambia-sentenced.html
CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/larry-rudolph-denist-bianca-rudolph-murder-investigation-african-safari/
Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/dateline-unforgettable/crime-news/larry-rudolph-killed-wife-bianca-rudolph-africa-safari-lori-milliron
APNews.com - https://apnews.com/article/dentist-safari-killing-wife-zambia-insurance-fraud-e746294183467d0ebe540865e687dd30
CNN.com - https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/22/us/larry-rudolph-dentist-safari-wife-death/index.html
LawAndCrime.com - https://lawandcrime.com/crime/thought-he-could-murder-his-wife-overseas-and-get-away-with-it-wealthy-dentist-and-big-game-hunter-gets-life-for-insurance-fraud-shotgun-slaying-during-african-safari/
Rollingstone.com - https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/bianca-larry-rudolph-murder-allegations-safari-dentist-1370972/
NBCNews.com -
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pennsylvania-dentist-allegedly-killed-wife-african-safari-collect-mill-rcna12232
TribLive.com - https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/son-of-greensburg-area-dentist-who-murdered-wife-on-safari-breaks-silence-in-gma-interview/
HappyScribe.com - https://www.happyscribe.com/public/20-20/the-last-hunt
20/20 The Last Hunt - https://abc.com/episode/6fb0a634-e68a-4fcf-bc99-5a8487e967cd
You're listening to an Oh No Media podcast.
Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Payton Moreland.
And I'm Garrett Moreland.
And he's the husband.
And I'm the husband.
Hey everybody, we love you guys. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Thank you for downloading. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for liking. Thank you for commenting. Thank you for reviewing. Thank you for everything.
We have some of our Basics merch currently up in the store. We will be doing another drop soon though, so stay tuned for that. But if you want to check out the Basics, go and check it out in the store.
I already told everyone on my Instagram Live and my Twitch Live what it is. Sorry if you weren't listening or watching.
It's going to be new—
Tell them?
No.
Okay, I'm not going to say.
You have to follow Payton's Instagram, I guess.
Yeah, I think that's it. I think we're ready for your 10 seconds.
Yeah, I think that's all the announcements we have. Just like always, if you're interested in bonus content, you can subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Patreon. You get bonus episodes and ad-free content.
Other than that, for my 10 seconds: I finally cut my hair—cut my head. It's starting to slowly grow back in. Like, the front section... the back and everything else grew in anyway. So the front section is starting to slowly grow back in. I don't know if you can tell on the camera—getting there. Give me another, like, three months and I'll be good to go.
But it feels good that I was able to at least cut my hair, trim it up a little bit. That's what I got for my 10 seconds. Let me think—do I have anything else?
I need to start golfing. Weather's getting warmer, so I need to get back out there and pretend like I know how to golf.
Is that all I got? Have I done anything—oh! I just got one of those walking treadmills. You know, from TikTok? I fell for it. I never thought I'd be a TikTok Shop person, and I always was against it. I was like, "I'll never buy anything on TikTok Shop."
I bought one of those walking treadmills so I can work and walk at the same time because I'm so sick of sitting in a chair.
Anyways, maybe I'll post a video on Instagram. I got a good setup going—I got my treadmill, I got... I don’t know, my desk, I guess. And then I got a big TV, and I’ll just be walking.
Before we jump into today’s episode, let’s ask Payton how she’s doing today.
Payton, how are you doing today?
Not good.
Payton’s not doing great—but guess what? That’s okay.
Listen, I'm okay. I just want to go to sleep.
You're tired.
Yeah.
I know y’all—I don’t know.
But watch this.
Okay, we are going to jump into today’s episode.
Our sources for this episode are: people.com, abc7.com, justice.gov, nytimes.com, cbsnews.com, oxygen.com, apnews.com, cnn.com, lawandcrime.com, rollingstone.com, nbcnews.com, triblive.com, happappscribe.com, and The Last Hunt (2020).
Okay you guys, let’s face it—we all need a little vacation every now and again.
Oh look at that.
Whether that’s lying on a beach in Tahiti or seeking out adventure in Africa, we all have different ideas of what a relaxing getaway means to us.
But honestly, some of the happiest memories I have are from the trips we’ve taken together. I mean, I feel like Garrett and I—when we do take trips, just us two—it’s always so fun.
And I think the best part of vacation is getting that time to disconnect—from the world, from your stress, from your problems—and just focus on yourself and the person you're with. Plus, they’re a great way to strengthen a bond with someone. They can turn an ordinary friendship into one that lasts a lifetime.
Maybe it's a chance to get to know your parents on a level you never knew them before. Or maybe it's an opportunity to rekindle a flame—a time for a little bit of romance with your partner, especially when life has just gotten in the way.
And while many of us dread that trip back home, back to reality, we all expect that life will resume as usual. Inevitably. What we never expect is for that destination to be the very last place we ever visit—and our vacation to be weaponized against us by our travel partner.
Oh man, I’d hate if we were vacationing in Idaho and that was the last place and I had to die there.
For anyone who lives in Idaho—I don’t mind Idaho.
I just said that because Payton’s parents are there, so they’re probably listening to this.
But for anyone who does live in Idaho, actually—I do enjoy Idaho. I like Idaho.
Okay, so we’re going to turn the clock back to the 80s.
The hair is big, the clothes are vibrant—which I feel like we’re kind of coming back to.
Uh, not 80s—more like 90s.
Baggy pants again, baggy shirt, frosted tips, you know?
Yeah—clothes are vibrant.
And for Bianca Pheno, the world is a promising place to be in the 80s.
Bianca is a student at the University of Pittsburgh who dreams of traveling the world one day. Specifically, this college student—Bianca—wants to go to Italy. She loves the language and the culture. But more importantly, she just wants adventure. And she wants to find someone who shares her thrill-seeking nature.
So when she meets a fellow student—Lawrence Patrick Rudolph—or Larry, as his friends call him, she actually falls for him quick.
Larry may be a kid from a small town in Pennsylvania called Irwin, but he also has a knack for adrenaline-fueled adventure.
And not one I would personally consider a good time.
Larry likes to hunt.
Larry’s dad taught him to hunt with everything from guns to bow and arrows when he was a kid. And for Larry, it was a hobby that turned into a real passion over the years. One that he would even rope Bianca into after they met, fell in love, and got married in 1982.
But Larry was the kind of guy who always had his eye on the prize.
So after graduating from dental school, he quickly rose the ranks, opening up his own practice called Three Rivers Dental in the Pittsburgh area.
And meanwhile, Bianca’s job became stay-at-home mom after the birth of her two children: Julian, in 1990, and then Anna Bianca after that.
And at least according to Julian—this is her son—life for the family was really happy.
He loved growing up in Pittsburgh. He seemed to remember his parents getting along well. He said his mom was kind, nurturing, and caring. Honestly, he said his mom was his best friend.
And he said Larry was a good dad, who was just as charismatic as he was generous—to his family and to other people around him.
A lot of people who knew the couple and the family said that they had the kind of marriage that people aspire to have.
Though Larry did work a lot—especially when his practice franchised, opening a few more locations around the Pittsburgh area—by the 2000s, the business was doing really well for itself.
According to some sources, they were bringing in over $200,000 a month.
Sheesh.
Dang.
In 2000? That’s good.
And Larry spent a lot of that disposable income taking his family on nice vacations all over the world.
Okay, so fast forward: this family had little kids—now they’re growing up. They’re making a lot of money. And if you're going to spend your money on something? Family vacations—kind of cool.
Exactly.
Family vacations are the place to spend your money. At least, I think so.
Larry has a very lucrative dental practice that has franchised. So by 2011, when Anna Bianca—their youngest child—chose to go to school in Arizona, the family bought a piece of property there to be close to her.
So like, when they visit—they’re with her.
It’s a 7,000-square-foot mansion in Scottsdale, Arizona, to be exact.
And this is where Bianca spent most of her time.
So the mom was mostly in Arizona, while Larry—the dad—went back and forth between there and Pittsburgh to keep running his dental practices.
But the one thing that always seemed to keep Bianca and Larry connected, even after years of marriage and raising a family, was that passion that first brought them together:
Adventure.
Or in their case—specifically—hunting.
I have to say…the kind of hunting they were into was not just deer or quail.
They had a lot of money.
Larry and Bianca were in the big leagues.
Humans.
Exactly—no! If that’s what you want to call it…
They were big game hunters, which means going to Africa.
They traveled the world hunting animals like zebra.
Not sure how I feel about that one.
Bianca was so into this hobby that she actually became the president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Safari Club International, which is a hunting club.
She was actually really well respected in that community because of the game she’d killed.
But Larry—while he had taught her a lot of what she knew—he actually didn’t seem to be as sharp-sensed as Bianca was in this hobby.
In 2006, he got into a pretty wild accident while fishing.
That October, Larry was on a trip in Zambia, Africa. And one morning, he grabbed his pole and went out fishing down on the banks—an area notoriously populated with crocodiles.
Mind you, Larry said he reached into the water when he thought something had caught his line—and that’s when a crocodile leapt out, grabbed him, and pulled him into the water.
No way.
Now Larry escaped—in Africa—on this trip by climbing onto a rock, getting a grip on his gun, and firing it a few times for help.
Luckily for Larry, the crocodile only managed to get a small chunk out of the tip of his thumb.
Help eventually arrived—in the form of a medevac chopper—but Larry refused to get on until his guide took a bunch of photos of his injury. Like a prized battle wound.
According to Larry, the injury was enough, though, to take a real toll on his life.
He said he lost all sensation in that thumb, which made it difficult for him to perform dental surgery. So he actually ended up going on disability and collecting insurance money to pay him out for the time that he couldn't work on his practices.
By 2016, it seems that Larry was back on his game, because that year he and Bianca decided they were going to do the hunting trip of all hunting trips. They were going to return to Zambia for Bianca's ultimate prize. She wanted to hunt and kill the one animal she hadn't been able to find yet.
I hope it's not an elephant.
A leopard.
Okay, I mean—sorry. Like, I don't feel bad saying this—I'm just not a fan. I do. I think that this is unethical. And, I mean, I would say that if you're wanting to know my opinion, hunting animals in Africa? Not a big fan. Not a big fan of that.
Like, hunting deer and birds and other things—sure. Cycle of life, especially if you're eating. A lot of us eat meat.
Yeah, sure.
But hunting like leopards and elephants and lions in Africa? Nah. That's—that's kind of crazy.
Also, it's just like—I don't know. People are—also, cheetahs! Sorry, we're getting off topic, but cheetahs are my favorite animal.
Oh, don't come at me. I love animals. And it's okay that I love animals. If anyone tried to hunt a cheetah with me around—careful.
It feels like, you know, a couple of times we've talked about how sometimes—maybe it's been here, maybe it's been on Twitch stream, I don't know—really wealthy people get so wealthy that they get... so then they have to do something that average people can't do.
Yeah.
Which is—this is what that feels like.
100%. This is a hobby that's like, well, not for everyone...
The reason I said humans is because—remember in The Purge when the wealthy people would hunt humans? They would hunt humans, like they would set it up. It was like a game for them, because they were so wealthy, they weren't going to be killed, and there was nothing else for them to do.
Crazy.
Yeah. You always have to do the next big thing.
This is kind of what that feels like to me. All right—rant over.
So that September, the couple left the States partly in celebration of their 34 years together. Zambia was a place they had many great memories. And after some years of having grown apart, they figured this would be a great trip to kind of focus on their marriage and rekindle their flame.
After flying 20 hours from Arizona to Zambia, the Rudolphs were ready for two weeks of R&R—or as they define it, hunting beautiful animals. They made their way to Kafue National Park, which has a designated area where big game hunting is actually permitted. It's not illegal there.
They also met up with their longtime friend and hunting guide, Mark Swaneppel, and a local game scout named Spencer Kakoma.
Now, for what seems like the entire trip, things are pretty awesome between Larry and Bianca. Their guides say they're affectionate toward one another. There's no fighting or bickering. They're just having fun. Everyone's in high spirits.
But by the end of their two weeks there, Bianca is disappointed because she hasn't been able to track or kill the one animal she came there for—and that was the leopard.
Still, she chalks the trip up to a win because she had managed to kill a zebra, a warthog, and a hippo.
I don't know why I find that kind of sad—killing a zebra. What is—it’s just not... zebras aren’t doing anything! It’s not natural. Zebras are just living their life, hanging out.
Anyways, I don't know. I know this isn't about that. This is about—I almost forgot we were doing a true crime case for a second.
All right, we can keep it going. Zebras... have you guys seen Madagascar? Zebras don’t do anything.
Yeah. I'm sorry, you guys, if you can't tell—Garrett and I are just very pro-animals.
Well, like, ah. I mean, yes. But I’ve been dove hunting and stuff.
I know. Payton and I are kind of on opposite spectrums. She's not really for that, and I'm for some things. But don’t touch anything in Africa.
I just don’t think hunting should be for sport. And I know that’s going to come off like a very hot take. I don’t care what you do—I'm not telling you you’re a bad person. Payton and I can disagree on stuff, and we're still sane. But in my brain, in my human experience, I would never hunt for sport.
And in my human experience, it’s a little bit different—but not in Africa.
So by now, her guides even say that she’s really perfected her shot. She knows how to handle a gun better than most hunters.
Plus, Bianca is excited to get back home because they actually have a nephew’s wedding to attend in the next few days.
So, on the morning of October 11th, the Rudolphs are getting ready to say goodbye to their guides and leave their camp—until their next trip to Zambia. Larry wakes up and goes to take a shower, while Bianca is packing her things, including their guns—her guns—when suddenly…
A single gunshot is heard from their cabin.
Okay. Here we go.
Now, Spencer Kakoma—their local game scout—hears the gun go off and immediately runs toward the Rudolphs’ cabin to make sure everything’s good and they’re safe.
But when he gets there, he sees 56-year-old Bianca lying at the foot of the bathroom in a pool of her own blood. In the center of her chest is a gunshot wound. And Bianca’s pulse has already stopped beating by the time Spencer gets there.
Okay.
And towering over Bianca’s body is Larry—her husband. He’s hysterical. Frantic. Inconsolable. And he’s saying, over and over and over again:
“She committed suicide. My wife committed suicide. What am I going to tell the children?”
As Spencer takes in the scene that he walks into—oh, sorry—red flags. Just boom, everywhere.
He sees Bianca’s shotgun. It’s partially zipped up in its case, but there’s a hole in one end, which suggests the gun actually went off while in its case.
So Spencer and the other guides call the local police. And when they get there, Larry says something a little different than what he was saying when Spencer first arrived at the scene.
He’s not mentioning suicide anymore.
Now he’s saying his wife must have actually been packing up her shotgun, didn’t realize it was loaded, and accidentally fired it—through her chest.
Which... I mean, if you’re thinking about this, if you have a long gun case and you’re putting a gun in, you might actually bend over it to zip it up upright. You know what I mean?
No, it makes sense.
But I mean, that’s obviously not standard safety protocol. And she knows a lot about safety.
Yeah, considering how experienced she is, she would know how to pack a gun—how to face it when packing, what to do. It just seems... highly unlikely.
And also—though not impossible.
Right, not impossible. But also, females in general can be more detail-oriented. So it just seems very unlikely.
So, Larry’s like, “Okay, maybe she was packing the gun and it went off.”
But Spencer is sitting there, listening to Larry—who originally said she committed suicide—and now he’s telling the police, “Oh, she was packing the gun and it went off.”
And Spencer is a bit suspicious of Larry. Because Larry claims he was in the shower when the gun went off—remember, that’s what he told everyone. But when Spencer got there, very shortly after the shot, Larry was fully clothed, wearing shoes, and his hair wasn’t wet.
And Spencer knows—Bianca was the best shot of anyone there. She would never make a mistake like packing a loaded gun into a bag. She was a professional. An expert. You don’t really make those kinds of mistakes at that level.
Still, the Zambia police seem to take Larry’s word for it. They don’t take any fingerprints at the scene. Instead, they take Bianca’s body to the capital city of Lusaka for an autopsy—and they pretty quickly rule Bianca’s death as an accident.
But then Larry does something really weird.
He contacts the American embassy in Lusaka and tells them—just 11 hours after she died in Africa—that he wants his wife cremated.
So she dies, she goes in for an autopsy, they say it’s an accident, and immediately he’s like, “Okay—cremate her.”
It’s because he doesn’t want to go back to the States where they could obviously figure out more information—that’s my guess.
Well, also—this is despite the fact that it’s apparently known to everyone who knew Bianca that she did not want to be cremated. This goes against her wishes.
Wow.
Even weirder? Larry doesn’t call his kids and tell them what happened. So when a diplomat offered to make the calls for him, Larry’s like, “No. I just don’t want to call them. I don’t want to tell them over the phone. I just want to tell them in person.”
For sure he has a mistress.
Okay. So meanwhile, the two kids—Anna Bianca and Julian—are back in the States actually panicking. Because for the last two days, their parents were supposed to have come home, and now neither of them have been answering their calls or texts.
It actually wasn’t until five days after Bianca’s death that Larry finally decides to call Julian—the son—and tell him what happened.
Just a few days after that, Larry is on a plane headed back to the U.S. with Bianca’s ashes in tow.
And for the most part, the Rudolph family tries to move forward. They have a funeral for Bianca in Arizona on October 22, 2016—but there’s no Catholic mass, like many think the very religious Bianca would’ve wanted.
Afterwards, Julian returns home to Miami, where he was building his own personal injury practice at the time. And the daughter, Anna Bianca, returns to work in the family’s dental practice in Pittsburgh.
So Larry’s now alone in Arizona, at the house.
For the next year or so, Julian and Anna Bianca don’t see much of Larry, their dad. And when they do, he’s really adamant with them that he does not want to talk about what happened on that vacation.
So these two kids are still just, like, confused about what happened. Like, mom just died and now you’re here, and the dad is refusing to talk about it.
Even his staff at the dental practice have been told: no flowers, no sympathy cards, no phone calls—do not mention this death at all. Act like it didn’t happen. He claims he wants to put the past behind him and move on with his life.
But a lot of people start to get suspicious. Oh, 100%. Yeah, it’s a lot of people who knew Bianca, and they know that this is all just a little off. They begin to think Larry might be covering something up.
So it starts with a few small things. Like I said, the news that Larry rushed to have her body cremated when many knew Bianca didn’t want that. But then Larry starts installing security cameras around his offices.
Wow.
He also starts getting on the phone with those insurance companies pretty quickly to try and cash in on her life insurance policies, which are worth almost $5 million.
Mind you, here’s the thing: Larry is rich from his medical practice. From what I could tell in my research, this guy is not hurting for money. He’s not in the red. He doesn’t exactly need this $5 million.
So you have to ask: if there was something suspicious about Bianca’s death, what reason did Larry have behind it? Because it’s not necessarily about money. And he has to have a mistress, right? That’s got to be coming next.
Money isn’t necessarily a motive when you’ve got things going on on the side.
Telling you—there’s the next most common motive. Larry... let’s just say he’s not a very faithful guy. Okay? He fooled around a lot outside of his marriage in the 34 years that he and Bianca were together.
For a long time, Larry claimed he just did this for the thrill. It was just like an adrenaline-seeking adventure for him. A little dangerous because he liked the possibility of getting caught.
And he did get caught, by the way, back in the early 2000s. That’s when Bianca confronted him and told him, “If you don’t shape up and stop sleeping around, I’m going to file for divorce.” And Larry did shape up—or at least he told Bianca he did.
Bianca even insisted on a postnup agreement to make sure if Larry did step out on her again, he would pay for it.
And then 2002 rolled around, and a woman named Lori Milleron came into Larry’s life.
But Lori wasn’t just a quick chase for Larry, like all the other girls before. She was someone he had fallen in love with hard.
Okay, Lori was a 44-year-old divorcee with three kids who, in May of 2002, needed a second job to support her family. So that’s when she joined one of Larry’s practices as a dental hygienist. And Larry seemed smitten with her from day one.
Turns out, Lori felt the same way, because he quickly went from being her boss to being her secret boyfriend.
I do want to say, though, it seems like a pretty open secret around the office because they would arrive together in the same car for work. And especially when Lori was moved to another one of the practice’s locations and given a big promotion pretty fast.
This is the perk of dating Larry.
And they didn't end there. I don't know what Larry told Bianca when all of this was happening. I know he was back and forth between their house in Arizona and Pittsburgh, so he had a lot easier time hiding it. But apparently, between 2003 and 2008, he actually took Lori, his mistress, on several trips around the globe. I'm talking, he took her to Paris.
Wait, how does that... how does that...
Africa. New Zealand.
Did his wife know?
I think she knows he's going on these trips. I don't think she knew that Bianca... I don't think she knew that Lori was with him.
And during a lot of those vacations, Larry would tell Lori how he wanted to leave Bianca for her. Meanwhile, he told other people who confronted him about the affair that he and Bianca just had an open marriage. She knew he was seeing other women, which everyone who knew Bianca knew this wasn't the case. But also, Bianca was a really intelligent woman. Chances are, she probably did know something was going on with Larry, especially since he had a track record of cheating on her. In reality, many think Bianca just didn't want to file for divorce because of her Catholic upbringing. It went against everything she believed in, and she was alone a lot of the time in Arizona. For Larry, it went against everything he believed in too, because he didn't want to lose all of his money. And because of that, the two stayed together for a lot longer than they probably should have. All the while, Larry keeps seeing Lori.
But according to some sources, Lori starts to get a bit impatient with Larry. Around 2015, she apparently told him he had a year to get rid of Bianca or she would walk away from the relationship. Then what happens after Bianca dies in October of 2016, within that year? I can tell you one thing: Larry and Lori are still together. Not only that, he flies her out from Pittsburgh to Arizona on the day of Bianca's funeral. Within a month or two after that, Lori moves into the Arizona house he shared with Bianca.
So, knowing all of this, like how quickly Lori becomes a part of the life... that he flew her out there to visit on the day of his wife's funeral... friends and colleagues are now suspicious of Bianca's death. And one of them wastes no time offering this information up to the FBI.
Her name is Anna Grimley. She's an employee at Three Rivers Dental, one of Larry's practices. To be honest, it feels like she doesn't owe this guy a thing because Larry is not very well-liked around his practices, probably for his notorious temper and his history of throwing things at his employees when he gets mad.
So, good for Anna for calling up the FBI and saying something. She tells them all about his affair, this known affair with Lori, and how Lori had given him that one-year ultimatum to divorce or get rid of his wife.
Man, but as it turns out, this isn't the first time Larry Rudolph had landed on the FBI's radar. In fact, they've been sniffing him out ever since he asked to get his wife cremated in Africa at the American Embassy after her death.
So after the accident, authorities had to call the US consulate to report Bianca's death, as is protocol. And when they say, "Hey, the husband is here looking to cremate his wife, which, by the way, is not standard practice in Zambia," the consulate general is like, "Okay, let me come down to the funeral home, talk to this guy, 'cause this is all feeling very rushed."
So he gets there with two agents, and before Bianca's body is cremated, he makes sure to take pictures in case the investigation needs to be reopened, which is a smart move. Yeah, 'cause when he turns those photos over to the FBI, their ballistics team is like, "Hang on a second. This does not look like a self-inflicted gunshot. There's no burns or what they call tissue expansion seen on Bianca, which would happen if she was leaning over and the barrel was that close to her chest."
They claim this shot was fired at least three feet away from her chest. Okay, from what appears to be inside the gun bag, since that also has a gunshot through it. Remember, they have two— they have a bullet hole in the gun bag to look at.
Can you imagine being the kids and being like, "Yeah, my dad killed my mom"? Right, that's horrible.
So you can't accidentally fire a rifle into your heart from three feet away. No, not possible. So to them, this means she did not pull that trigger. Like, this is actually now impossible.
So ever since that day, the FBI definitely had their suspicions of Larry, but nothing much more to work off of, 'cause they didn't have a ton of evidence. Though it does explain his paranoia and the adding of video cameras in all of his practices, because he seems to know someone's looking into him.
Now, hearing about the girlfriend, though, the FBI has motive. Meanwhile, they're sifting through Larry's financial history as well, because usually, when someone kills their spouse, they are quick to collect the cash, wealthy or not. And Larry has seemingly made a full-time job out of it, practically since the moment he returned from that trip.
Turns out, Larry went around collecting that nearly 5 million in insurance policies from not one company, but nine different insurance companies. And six months before Bianca died, crap, they had set up a survivor's trust, which gave Larry full control over the assets that they had together. This is, I mean, you might think this is common, but this is basically just an easier way after someone dies in a marriage for someone to get control of it. Which is very telling, because while Larry was now rolling in dough and injecting large deposits of cash into Lori's accounts, Julian and Anna Bianca are not given any money.
So their mother dies. That sucks. He is completely funding Lori's life, and the kids aren't seeing anything
Authorities also learn this wasn't Larry's first time dealing with insurance companies like this. Remember that incident in Zambia with the crocodile he got his thumb bit off? Yeah, when he came back, he said he had to go on disability. Remember? 'Cause he said he had lost all sensation and he couldn't work as a dentist. Well, when all was said and done, Larry had actually collected $3.5 million from multiple insurance companies.
Depending on who you ask, though, that crocodile bite never happened. So after hearing what occurred in October 2016 with Bianca, many of Larry's friends and colleagues think that wound might have been self-inflicted—that Larry might have shot off the tip of his thumb to collect insurance money. And since the insurance companies knew it would be too expensive to send their appraisers to Zambia and assess the claim, they just gave him the money.
I'm just confused because, if this guy was, was he in financial trouble?
We just don't know.
No. From all accounts that I've read, he just would like to collect more and more money.
Yeah, like he wasn't in the red, he liked money, which might explain why he didn't just divorce, because he knew that he would lose money, which he seems to love. So we're seeing a pattern here.
Larry would head to Zambia, lie about what happened there, come back, and get a lot of money. The problem was, this still isn't quite enough to charge Larry with murder, which is why for the next three years after Bianca's death, he and Lori get to live out the life they hoped for.
But in 2020, they make a really stupid mistake. So Lori and Larry are out to dinner at this Phoenix steakhouse sometime earlier that year, 2020. Apparently, it's a place they visit often because the bartender, a guy named Brian Love Lace, seems to recognize them. And he notices that halfway through their dinner, Larry and Lori start fighting.
Now, the music's a little loud, so from halfway across the room, he can't really make out what they're saying. But at one point, the music stops, and Brian—who is the bartender—starts eavesdropping on this couple, because who wouldn't? Like, if a couple's fighting next to you, you're going to eavesdrop and try to figure out the drama.
The music stops, and Brian hears one sentence very clearly. Larry looks at her, and right as the music stops, he says, "I killed my effing wife for you."
Oh, I mean, the timing—wow. Awful timing. Awful timing.
Because he had to say it that loud 'cause the music was too loud, but then the music stopped, and so it was just a little too...
I've been in a restaurant where that happens before, and it is pretty awkward. But you're not saying you killed your effing wife.
Not yet.
You're probably just saying, "Oh, I have to fart."
Right? That was... That was wild.
So, I mean, the timing couldn't have been worse. And Lori and Larry knew it too. Because as soon as it happens, they know they said that too loud. They kind of look around, grab their stuff. Lori storms out. Larry stands up. He apologizes to Brian, he pays the bill, and leaves. Even a woman sitting near them asks Brian, "Hey, did you hear what that guy just said?" Was he saying it that loudly? Yeah. So it wasn't just the bartender who was eavesdropping. Someone sitting next to them also. That's his fault. Larry just confessed to a dining room full of people in Arizona in 2020 that he murdered his wife. And once the FBI gets wind of this, it is added to the pile.
So over the next year, the FBI is getting ready to move in on Larry. And he and Lori know it. They start getting even more paranoid. The FBI agents are following them. And then in May of 2021, Larry sets off to Ethiopia for another hunting trip. And while he's gone, agents knocked on Lori's door in Pittsburgh, looking for her.
She hid inside and then bought a flight to Phoenix that same day to go hide there instead. Remember, they're still going back and forth between Phoenix and Pittsburgh. But by December of that year, agents finally have all of their ducks in a row. Lori and Larry set off for Cabo for the holidays. But before they could get out of the airport, police arrested Larry for mail fraud and murder. He was considered a flight risk, obviously, and denied bond.
Lori made it back home to the States to celebrate a very unmerry Christmas. But by January of 2022, she also received a knock on her door—and that’s when she’s arrested for obstruction of justice and being an accessory to murder, because they now have witnesses that say that is what was said.
While Larry is forced to await his trial behind bars, Lori is given an ankle bracelet and placed on house arrest. And in July of 2022, the two are put on trial together, which is interesting because you don't really have any physical evidence. Right? The body's gone. You have those pictures. I think you could easily argue, "Oh, what I actually said was I don't..." you know? You know, there's things you could argue. It's—you know what I’m saying? It’s going to be a trial of witness testimony, is what it’s going to be. A lot of witness testimony. "Bianca didn’t want this." "This was suspicious." "Maybe this didn’t happen."
Now, what’s interesting is that Larry’s kids—33-year-old Julian and 29-year-old Anna Bianca—when all of this comes to light, are adamant that their father did not do this.
Wow.
Their claim? No, it was an accident. They even send in sworn affidavits insisting their father is innocent and that the judge should grant him bail. Doesn't work.
But shockingly enough, they are in for the surprise of their lives when it comes time for their dad’s day in court—because for the first time ever, they are hearing and seeing all of the circumstantial evidence the FBI has been compiling against him. I mean, keep in mind—they don’t know everything. That would be absolutely earth-shattering.
Julian, the son, would actually go on to tell the press, quote: "Every day going into that courtroom, I saw something new that just broke my heart."
Yeah.
But for the defense, let's say the Zambia police did them a lot of favors—because for whatever reason, like I said, nothing was fingerprinted or taken as evidence at the crime scene. The murder weapon was turned back over to Larry shortly after the crime. Most of the case is circumstantial, like I said, aside from the pretty convincing results from the ballistics team that say there's just no possible way Bianca pulled that trigger. That’s the only physical evidence they have that proves this story isn’t true.
Now, Larry takes the stand at their trial and, of course, he denies all the allegations. Says that the argument the bartender overheard was about COVID-19. He was like, it would affect his practices and his finances. He says what Garrett just said he would do—he gets up and says, quote: "Now they’re saying I killed my effing wife for you, not I killed my effing wife for you." He also maintains that he and Bianca had an open marriage. He’s like, "No, I wasn’t cheating on her. I’ve told everyone—it was an open marriage. She knew."
Let’s just say his testimony didn’t help him or Lori. Because after nearly two weeks and more than 50 witnesses taking the stand—
Oh man—
And after just a few days of deliberation, the jury couldn’t come to an agreement. But eventually, they had their verdict.
Larry Rudolph was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life in prison for murder. He was also given 20 years to serve consecutively for defrauding multiple insurance companies.
And for her part, Lori was also found guilty and sentenced to 17 years in prison for being an accessory to murder.
Now, Julian says his relationship with his father will never be the same. He doesn’t really pick up the phone when his dad calls him from prison—not after that trial.
So not only did Larry deceive everyone around him—he deceived his own children. And he left them with a pretty big mess to clean up.
On top of that, as of 2023, 34-year-old Julian and his sister were trying to recover the funds their father had stolen from them after Bianca’s murder.
Problem is, the U.S. government believes the insurance companies deserve the money back, since it was obtained through murder—not Larry’s kids.
And what money did belong to the family was mostly spent by Larry prior to his arrest.
I mean, like I said—he was still living lavish. And then there were the legal fees.
Unfortunately, the Rudolph kids might be fighting for what’s rightfully theirs for a long time to come.
And as for Larry, it looks like the only lavish vacation he’ll ever have again… is to the prison yard to get a little fresh air.
And that is the story of Bianca Rudolph.
I mean, I’m surprised they convicted him—and obviously I’m glad, ’cause I think he did it.
I’m actually not surprised.
No—and normally you don’t hear me say that. On a heavy case, especially something that happened out of the country, I’d think it’d be pretty hard to convict.
I just think there were so many witnesses to the affair, Bianca’s friends and family saying, no, she had given him a year...
I just think there was too much that pointed to: he clearly was obsessed with money.
He couldn’t just divorce her.
Yeah.
So he killed her.
That’s sad. That’s horrible.
It’s actually awful.
Oh yeah—it’s horrible. She was like, living her—she thought they were just on a good vacation, trying to focus on their marriage. That’s so sad.
All right, you guys. That is our case for this week.
And we will see you next time with another one.
I love it.
And I hate it.
Goodbye.