How do you solve a problem like Fred Jablin?
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Episode Transcript:
Bianca Sloane: (00:00)
The person who gunned down a popular professor in their driveway one chilly October morning, thought they committed the perfect crime, not even close.
Bianca Sloane: (01:11)
Hello and welcome to The Dark Side of Love. I'm your host, Bianca Sloane author of Suspense Novels about the Dark Side of Love and this week I'm diving into the case of the professor and the blonde.
Bianca Sloane: (01:25)
A hundred years ago, which everything before the pandemic feels like a hundred years ago, I was on some monster road trip with my father. And I couldn't tell you how the subject came up. But we were talking about when he was getting his PhD at the university of Texas, which was like five hundred years ago, and he's telling me about his first year and one of his classes, an organizational communications class, and how tough it was. And the professor would tell them, the students, that their main job in grad school was to ask their professors how high they should jump.
Bianca Sloane: (01:59)
And it was in the middle of this walk down memory lane that my dad pauses and says, "Actually, Fred, the professor was murdered years ago." And being the true crime nut job that I am, I of course asked what happened, and all he can remember at that point is that Fred, professor, had been gunned down in his driveway in Richmond, Virginia, while he was getting his newspaper one morning. At this point, something crazy clicks in my brain because the story sounds really familiar. So, I start rerunning the facts in my head: professor University of Texas killed in his driveway. Richmond. Some convoluted thing with stolen identities. Fred, I said, was it Fred Jablin? My dad says, yeah, Fred Jablin. And then I realized that I actually saw this on an episode of Snapped, which then I of course had explained to my dad what Snapped was, because he wouldn't know it from a hole in the wall.
Bianca Sloane: (02:55)
And for those of you who also may not know it from a hole in the wall, Snapped is a show on the Oxygen network about women who snap and kill. It can be a spouse, a family friend, coworker, that's the basic gist of that show. And to this day, I could not tell you how I was able to snatch that little tidbit from the recesses of my brain, but clearly, the story left an impression on me. So, let me tell you the story of Fred Jablin and Piper Rountree.
Bianca Sloane: (03:27)
Fred Jablin was exactly what you would expect a professor to be. Slight, balding, bookish, glasses. He'd come to Austin, Texas in 1979 from the University of Wisconsin, having just gone through a divorce from his first wife. So this was probably a fresh start for Fred. In 1981, he crossed paths with Piper, Roundtree who had come to UT in 1978 as a freshman.
Bianca Sloane: (03:55)
She enrolled in one of his organizational communications classes, and according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Fred and Piper had a strictly student teacher relationship. One of Fred's colleagues at Texas, John Daley, described the petite dark-haired Piper as bright, smart, nice. Childhood friend and eventual roommate at UT, Lavonne Guerrero, told the paper, Piper was inquisitive, friendly and quirky.
Bianca Sloane: (04:24)
That offbeat persona likely appealed to what friends described to the paper as Fred's quote calculated hardworking side, though, he wasn't immune to sampling the watering holes that Austin had to offer and having lived there, I can attest that, I don't think you can live there unless you do go to the bars on occasion or more than an occasion. This squares with some of my dad's memories of Fred being pretty exacting in class, but showing a different side off the clock. He recalled going to a party at Fred's house with my step-mom when they were dating, my dad and my step-mom, and that Fred offered them some weed. Now, they didn't take any, but that kind of tells you that Fred was business in the front and party in the back. So, you know, Hey, do you.
Bianca Sloane: (05:14)
Fred and Piper start dating once he's no longer her professor and friends say he was mesmerized by all of that friendliness and quirkiness. Apparently, it was a real love connection, and it wasn't long before they were joined at the hip, as couples in love tend to be.
Bianca Sloane: (05:30)
Now, someone who felt all of Piper's vivaciousness was wasted on the timid Fred was Piper's older sister, Tina. She told CBS's 48 hours that quote, "I was always disappointed that she married Fred because I always thought she would marry someone who was more successful, someone who's interesting, someone who was funny. He was not." Ouch.
Bianca Sloane: (05:57)
Apparently, Piper didn't care what the F her sister thought because in 1983, she and Fred moved to San Antonio, about an hour and a half from Austin. And they moved there because Piper had been accepted to the law school at St. Mary's university. Fred kept right on working at UT making that commute up 35, twice a day, which, y'all, that ain't fun, because nothing on 35 is fun. So, that had to be a man in love to do that twice a day, every day. Piper was still in law school when she and Fred married later that year, and by all accounts, the newlyweds were happy and things were going well. We've heard this story a million times before.
Bianca Sloane: (06:38)
However, Piper had some issues, which, started to creep in during those early days of wedded bliss. Namely, that she suffered from bulimia and was in therapy for what was described as family problems. John Daley told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Piper could be quote charming, but soon after they got together, she changed. He further said she was always high strung and had peaks and troughs, and they seem to get higher and higher and deeper and deeper as things went on.
Bianca Sloane: (07:11)
Despite these challenges, the couple pressed on and Piper did graduate from law school and found work as an attorney in San Antonio while Fred kept slogging away at UT. The couple eventually welcomed three children, daughters, Jocelyn and Callan and son Paxton. During this time, Fred was offered a job at the University of Richmond, which allowed Piper to become a stay-at-home mom.
Bianca Sloane: (07:35)
While Piper enjoyed being at home with the kids, the transition to life in Richmond was tough. She had trouble making new friends and was lonely for her family in Texas. She's feeling isolated. She's got these babies. I'm sure Fred was working long hours. So, understandably, this, of course, leads to some struggles in the marriage.
Bianca Sloane: (07:55)
Piper experienced bouts of depression and part of her remedy for that was compulsive, shopping, racking up thousands of dollars on the couple's credit cards. Now, my dad told me that he vaguely remembers rumors that Piper was having an affair, but he couldn't be a hundred percent sure on that. Well, it turns out it wasn't a rumor. Piper was having an affair with a married man, because of course, of course. Fred found out and all hell broke loose. He filed for divorce, and in a nutshell, he got everything as in the house, the kids, everything. Piper got visitation and in order to pay Fred child support each month. So, this kind of tells you something, right? Because usually mom gets custody of the kids. Not Piper. So, this is where we have to say, what's wrong with this picture?
Bianca Sloane: (08:53)
It sounds like maybe in a bid for attention, Piper was prone to stunts. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, she would call Fred's office looking for him panicking when he wasn't immediately available. Deanna Matthews, who was the administrative associate at the communication studies office, told the paper that Piper's messages would consist of things like, "Tell Fred, I had to fire the maid," or "Tell Fred he needs to come home right now."
Bianca Sloane: (09:21)
As I mentioned before, Fred was known to be this kind of straight down the line guy, for the most part. I mean, except for the Mary Jane, but were Piper was much more on the emotional side, which always works well in a relationship. Right? Right. So, remember John Daley, Fred's colleague, he had referred to Piper as high strung. She was being treated for depression, and according to the Houston Chronicle, Piper experienced significant episodes of mental health problems, drinking, and abuse of prescription drugs, and that she had circulated false reports of spousal abuse against Fred. Crimelibrary.com reported that the married guy she'd had the affair with, she had threatened to kill the man's wife.
Bianca Sloane: (10:09)
So, all things point to Piper probably not being considered the most stable parent. After the divorce, she's got to start over. Piper never took the Virginia bar, which meant practicing law in the state was out. So she hightailed it back to Texas where she was licensed, and she moved to Houston where her sister, Tina, lived and she resumed her law career. Except apparently Piper, wasn't all that great of an attorney, and she had trouble keeping a job, which meant she had trouble keeping up with the child support payments she owed Fred and wound up owing him almost 10 grand.
Bianca Sloane: (10:47)
Despite everything that's going on with him. And Piper, Fred seems to be living his best life. He met a new woman. He's a popular professor at the University of Richmond. He's making pretty good money. His research is going well. And by all accounts, he is a devoted father. And he is someone who puts those kids first at every turn.
Bianca Sloane: (11:08)
Piper, meanwhile, is depressed. Understandably. She only gets to see her kids a few times a year for holidays and school breaks. And supposedly again, not all that surprising, wasn't all that thrilled that Fred's new girlfriend was developing a relationship with her children. So, things aren't going all that great for Piper. And as we know, they're about to get a whole lot worse for Fred.
Bianca Sloane: (11:37)
Saturday, October 30th, 2004. It's early, about six thirty or so in the morning. The three Jablin children are sound asleep. Fred, still in his bathrobe and slippers, heads downstairs to make a cup of coffee before stepping outside to grab his newspaper. Two gunshots shatter the early morning silence, piercing Fred in the arm and in his back. He falls to the ground. A neighbor hears the shots and calls police, but isn't altogether sure of what he heard. About a half hour later, after sunrise, Fred is found face down in his driveway. Dead. He was 52.
Bianca Sloane: (12:22)
The only clue that police find at the scene is the slug from a 38. On the surface, the whole thing seems baffling. A respected professor murdered in the driveway of his suburban home, in the chilly dark of a Saturday morning. The very definition of things like that don't happen to people like him in a neighborhood like this. Here's another little detail. Friends said Fred was all about routine. Literally someone you could set your watch to. And one of those unshakable routines was to early every morning, make coffee and grab his newspaper from the driveway. Exactly the kind of thing an ex-wife would know. Almost immediately, neighbors and friends point police in Piper's direction. Except there was the pesky matter of her rock-solid alibi. Piper's son, Paxton, told police he'd spoken to his mother via her cell phone the previous day and she told him she was in Houston. She's a thousand miles away, so she couldn't have done it, right?
Bianca Sloane: (13:26)
Here's where things start to get interesting. Of course, police just can't go by. Her son's say-so, they have to verify this alibi. They start by reaching out to her cell phone carrier to prove that Piper was really in Houston or that her phone was, anyway. And the phone carrier says no girl's phone was actually in Richmond at the time she was supposedly talking to her son from Houston. The phone then goes on a little road trip. Police track its locations in Norfolk, Virginia, and then Baltimore. They dig a little further and discover that Southwest Airlines had a flight originating in Norfolk with a stop in Baltimore, finishing up in Houston, where Piper lives. Police check the passenger list fully expecting to see Piper's name on it because this is how stupid she has to be, right?
Bianca Sloane: (14:18)
No, no, no, no, no. It's not Piper's name on that passenger list, but rather her sister, Tina. So this is a what the, what situation happening now, right? Police in Houston race to the airport to try and catch check any chick with last name, Roundtree, getting off that plane, except they miss her. They finally do catch up to Piper on October 31st, the day after Fred's murder and she claims she was working in Galveston, which is about an hour from Houston. But, according to what Detective Coby Kelly told Snapped, her details were quote vague. Now because they found Tina's name on the passenger list for that flight to Virginia, of course, police want to talk to her. However, she wasn't being all that cooperative, which puts police back at square one and needing to determine which sister was doing what, when, at the moment Fred Jablin was being assassinated in his driveway.
Bianca Sloane: (15:14)
Square one is the airport and a ticket agent who was able to identify Piper as the woman who was on that Southwest Airlines flight. However, the agent didn't describe a brunette like Piper, but a blonde like Tina. The same blonde woman also checked a 38 onto the plane. And remember there was a 38 slug found at the scene of Fred's murder. Police keep digging and the hole is getting deeper for Miss Piper. Turns out a week before the murder, Piper was a busy gal. She went to the gun range for a little shooting practice. She bought a blonde wig. On her way out of town to Virginia, she stopped at an Academy, which is a sporting goods store and bought a gun lock. I mean, she may as well as stood under a neon sign and said, "Look at me, I'm about to murder my husband!"
Bianca Sloane: (16:05)
As the walls, start to close in on Piper. She went back to Richmond for an emergency custody hearing, but since she was suspect numero UNO and Fred's murder, the judge denied her custody requests and instead gave the three kids to Fred's brother, Michael. Piper's day went from bad to worse because as soon as she left the courthouse, the cops arrested her for Fred's murder. Piper's motive, according to prosecutors was simple. She was upset because she lost custody of her kids and felt burned about having to pay child support to Fred. She wanted her kids back. She wanted to not have to owe him money for child support. Oh, and she was the beneficiary of his life insurance policy, which that money also would have solved a lot of problems for her. And in her mind, her biggest problem was Fred. He was standing in the way of everything she wanted.
Bianca Sloane: (17:01)
How do you solve a problem like Fred Jablin? If your Piper Rountree, you murder him.
Bianca Sloane: (17:10)
Piper's murder trial got underway in February of 2005, and her defense team's strategy was to blame the whole thing on Tina. Or at least plant enough reasonable doubt that it could have been Tina since these sisters resembled each other. Since Tina's name was on the passenger list for that flight to Virginia, since Tina really didn't care for Fred, because remember she thought her sister was too good for him. Still though, how much would it suck for your sister to let you take the rap for a crime that you were accused of committing and not, I don't know, five fingering a pack of gum, but a murder? A murder. I tell you what, she wouldn't be coming to my house for Christmas after that. Attempting to lay the blame on your sister for the crime you were accused of committing aside, Piper's case was pretty weak, which meant she had to take the stand to testify in her own defense.
Bianca Sloane: (18:03)
And I was a juror on a murder case once and about the worst thing that a guilty person can do, a guilty defendant is to testify on their own behalf. Predictably Piper was a terrible witness, coming off cold and cryptic in her testimony. She had an answer for everything, as liars usually do. And as crime library.com noted, she claimed she bought the wig for a Halloween party. But, no, no wait, the wig was actually for her sister, Tina. Yes, she did practice shooting at the gun range, but that was for protection. And she shared a cell phone with Tina, so maybe it was Tina who was in Virginia. See it's the sister thing again, but we'll come back to her in a minute. Coupled with all of the evidence against her, the jury deliberated for less than an hour before finding Piper guilty of first degree murder. She was ultimately sentenced to life in prison, the judge noting the premeditated and calculating nature of the plan she executed against her ex-husband ,further chastising her for demonstrating quote, absolutely no remorse.
Bianca Sloane: (19:09)
Now, aside from her not liking Fred and her sister's defense team potentially trying to pin the whole thing on her, where does Piper's sister Tina fit into all of this?
Bianca Sloane: (19:22)
So, Piper had used her sister's identification to do all kinds of stuff. And you know, I'm not sure if Piper swiped the ID without Tina knowing, or if Tina handed it over and said, you know, do you sis or what, but whatever the case hyper was definitely masquerading as Tina as a way to alibi herself for Fred's murder. And again mentioned this before, they resemble each other, physically, even down to their voices. So much so that people commented on the similarities between the two all the time.
Bianca Sloane: (19:55)
Piper used the ID at the shooting range the week before the murder, she used it to board that flight to Virginia, and she used it to check into the hotel she stayed at the night before the murder though, as crimelibrary.com notes, she wanted to sign and using another name, not the name that was on the ID because yeah, that's not weird at all. Tina was arrested on November the eighth, 2004, a few days after Piper's own arrest, as police suspected her of tampering with evidence connected to the murder. She pleaded guilty and Dateline reported that she completed nine months of community service. Tina told the CBS station in Richmond that her little sister was quote her best friend and a remarkable woman. I mean, I have two sisters and they don't love me enough to go and serve time or community service or whatever is because I murdered somebody. They just don't like me that much.
Bianca Sloane: (20:53)
Piper's first chance at parole was in 2020 when she was 60, but it was denied. The reasons given where that quote release would diminish the seriousness of the crime and the serious nature and circumstances of the offense. Piper Rountree's next chance at parole will be in 2033.
Bianca Sloane: (21:15)
Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of the dark side of law. I'm your host, Bianca Sloane and show your love for the Dark Side of Love by visiting the darksideoflove.com for show notes, transcripts, and a chance to support the show. Thanks for hanging out with me and join me next time for another tale of love gone wrong. I'll see you on the Dark Side.
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