This story sees the mixture of money and murder. Ed Baker was a wealthy millionaire from Houston, Texas who was able to amass his wealth using the oil industry. Ed Baker was a wealthy Texas millionaire who had made his fortune in oil. His multi-million dollar business — Vanguard Groups International, Inc. — specialized in oil investments throughout the country. Running the business alongside his wife Mary Walker, Vanguard became one of the fastest-growing businesses in the country. Baker was certainly made for the business world. According to his wife, Ed had an uncanny ability to win people’s trust. When it came to getting their business off the ground, he was able to find investors fairly easily using that charm. Although the couple started their business together in 1980, they were divorced in 1984. The divorce — coming from Baker’s side of things — was seen as some sort of a mid-life crisis. After ending his ten-year marriage, Baker spent a lot of time gambling, spending lavishly on cars, and getting cosmetic work done (two face-lifts). With actions like that, it’s pretty understandable why some would see it as a mid-life crisis…because that’s exactly what it looks like.

As Baker’s lifestyle continued on this path, he began to act a little more sporadically. In September of 1984, he got married to a woman named Karen Wallbridge. He would then be divorced from Wallbridge just eleven months later. Two months after that, he was married to Sandra Hoff (one of the employees at his very successful company). Throughout these two marriages, Baker was also still engaging in his lavish spending. To maintain his frivolous expenditures, he began using the money from his investors to either pay off past debt or fund his personal exploits. Either way, Ed Baker was playing with fire. His own attorney advised him against this because he could be looking at prison time if he were ever found out.

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