conducted
by telephone with Helen Richter,
May 19, 2013
[Preliminary introductions, explanations of processes and procedures]
Samantha Adams: Can you hear me okay? Sometimes our phone connections at the station house aren’t so great.
Helen Richter: Yes, I can hear you fine. Can you hear me?
Samantha Adams: Yes. And I’m supposed to inform you that I will be taping this telephone conversation. Is that all right?
Helen Richter: No problem.
Samantha Adams: Okay. I don’t want to take up more of your busy day than necessary, so let’s just jump into it. I guess my first question is how did John Taylor get away with it? I mean, having three wives? How could you not have suspected something?
Helen Richter: Isn’t that the question. The question everyone wants answered. How did he get away with it? [pause] It’s the elephant in the room at work. Some people manage to restrain themselves from asking. Most don’t. They seem to forget you’re one of the “its” being referred to. Meaning wives. And people have an almost clinical curiosity about the logistics. I suppose I can’t blame them. What did he tell you when he went away for long periods of time? Did he keep separate credit cards, bank accounts for each wife? Did he ever show up wearing something you didn’t recognize, or smelling of a strange scent? You wouldn’t believe the things people you barely know will come straight out and ask.
Samantha Adams: So, did he do any of those things? You have to admit, they’re the kinds of questions that immediately spring to mind.
Helen Richter: I still don’t know the answers myself; he did such a masterful job. Not of coming up with clever responses so much as erecting a kind of force field against them ever getting asked.
Samantha Adams: It must be hard.
Helen Richter: [pause] It is. [pause] You know, if your husband has an affair with another woman, you get a certain amount of sympathy. You see, there’s an acceptable social protocol for consoling the wives of middle-aged men who wander. But if your husband has another wife . . . well, we don’t exactly have a boilerplate for that. And people are lost without their boilerplate. They mostly lose control of their mouths. Ask a lot of stupid questions. And the most stinging of all is, How could you not have known?
Samantha Adams: How did you find out?
Helen Richter: By his death. The news article in the Stanford Daily . Survived by wife Deborah, and three children, Cynthia, Charles, and Evan. Devoted wife, I should say. Or was that the obituary? In any case, a wife that was not me. Not that I would ever describe myself as devoted— that has the connotation of blind, adoring worship. That wasn’t what John felt for me. Or what I felt for John. No.
I didn’t know he had children, either. That had been one of the conditions for our marriage. No children. No discussion. No regrets.
Samantha Adams: Tell me more about your marriage.
Helen Richter: It was very short and very sweet. We had just six months together, barely made it out of the honeymoon stage. Then again, it was a commuter marriage. With me in Los Angeles, him in Palo Alto. I had my job, and he had his. I liked LA, he liked Northern California. And we liked each other. So we agreed, we would have a long-distance relationship. He came down twice a month for three or four days at a time.
Samantha Adams: You never came north, to visit him in Palo Alto?
Helen Richter: No, never. It didn’t come up, was never an issue. You have to keep in mind, we were both very busy. When you choose a medical career, you accept a lifestyle most people would find intolerable. The long working hours, mostly on your feet. The fatigue, both physical and emotional. I’m a pediatric oncologist at the UCLA Children’s Hospital. I see fifty to sixty children every week, all very sick. No month passes without at least one, usually more, of my young patients dying. At any given time, our department is running four or five
by telephone with Helen Richter,
May 19, 2013
[Preliminary introductions, explanations of processes and procedures]
Samantha Adams: Can you hear me okay? Sometimes our phone connections at the station house aren’t so great.
Helen Richter: Yes, I can hear you fine. Can you hear me?
Samantha Adams: Yes. And I’m supposed to inform you that I will be taping this telephone conversation. Is that all right?
Helen Richter: No problem.
Samantha Adams: Okay. I don’t want to take up more of your busy day than necessary, so let’s just jump into it. I guess my first question is how did John Taylor get away with it? I mean, having three wives? How could you not have suspected something?
Helen Richter: Isn’t that the question. The question everyone wants answered. How did he get away with it? [pause] It’s the elephant in the room at work. Some people manage to restrain themselves from asking. Most don’t. They seem to forget you’re one of the “its” being referred to. Meaning wives. And people have an almost clinical curiosity about the logistics. I suppose I can’t blame them. What did he tell you when he went away for long periods of time? Did he keep separate credit cards, bank accounts for each wife? Did he ever show up wearing something you didn’t recognize, or smelling of a strange scent? You wouldn’t believe the things people you barely know will come straight out and ask.
Samantha Adams: So, did he do any of those things? You have to admit, they’re the kinds of questions that immediately spring to mind.
Helen Richter: I still don’t know the answers myself; he did such a masterful job. Not of coming up with clever responses so much as erecting a kind of force field against them ever getting asked.
Samantha Adams: It must be hard.
Helen Richter: [pause] It is. [pause] You know, if your husband has an affair with another woman, you get a certain amount of sympathy. You see, there’s an acceptable social protocol for consoling the wives of middle-aged men who wander. But if your husband has another wife . . . well, we don’t exactly have a boilerplate for that. And people are lost without their boilerplate. They mostly lose control of their mouths. Ask a lot of stupid questions. And the most stinging of all is, How could you not have known?
Samantha Adams: How did you find out?
Helen Richter: By his death. The news article in the Stanford Daily . Survived by wife Deborah, and three children, Cynthia, Charles, and Evan. Devoted wife, I should say. Or was that the obituary? In any case, a wife that was not me. Not that I would ever describe myself as devoted— that has the connotation of blind, adoring worship. That wasn’t what John felt for me. Or what I felt for John. No.
I didn’t know he had children, either. That had been one of the conditions for our marriage. No children. No discussion. No regrets.
Samantha Adams: Tell me more about your marriage.
Helen Richter: It was very short and very sweet. We had just six months together, barely made it out of the honeymoon stage. Then again, it was a commuter marriage. With me in Los Angeles, him in Palo Alto. I had my job, and he had his. I liked LA, he liked Northern California. And we liked each other. So we agreed, we would have a long-distance relationship. He came down twice a month for three or four days at a time.
Samantha Adams: You never came north, to visit him in Palo Alto?
Helen Richter: No, never. It didn’t come up, was never an issue. You have to keep in mind, we were both very busy. When you choose a medical career, you accept a lifestyle most people would find intolerable. The long working hours, mostly on your feet. The fatigue, both physical and emotional. I’m a pediatric oncologist at the UCLA Children’s Hospital. I see fifty to sixty children every week, all very sick. No month passes without at least one, usually more, of my young patients dying. At any given time, our department is running four or five
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