More thrilling than a Golden Globe nomination, and it had one of those last year, Richard Linklater’s darkly comic film Bernie helped achieve something truly novel this week: Freedom for a convicted murderer, Bernie Tiede, who was the subject of the movie and, in a bizarre twist, will now live in Linklater’s garage. This week, a judge in Panola County, Texas, ordered at least the temporary release of Tiede, who was convicted of murdering an 81-year-old companion in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison. Tiede, 55, was released on $10,000 bond, pending review by an appellate court of a plan that could reduce his sentence to time served. That occurred after a lawyer who was inspired by Linklater’s comedy turned up new evidence that Tiede had been sexually abused as a child. That revelation, combined with existing claims that Tiede had been verbally abused by the companion, Marjorie Nugent, softened a Texas prosecutor’s view of the motivation behind the crime. “I feel relieved that it is over with,” said Criminal District Attorney Danny Buck Davidson. “This is what I would want a prosecutor to do. I would want him to be fair.” An assistant funeral director in the East Texas town of Carthage, Tiede (played in the film by Jack Black, who received the Globe nomination) was taken under wing by Nugent, a well-heeled widow (played by Shirley MacLaine), who became his friend, patron and travelling companion. He signed her cheques. He endured small-town gossip about their spa massages. But the relationship went awry and, eventually, he shot her four times and kept her body in a freezer for nine months. He was convicted of first-degree murder. The narrative of the case was chronicled in a lengthy article by Skip Hollandsworth for Texas Monthly, which became the basis for Linklater’s film. Attempts to reach Linklater this week were unsuccessful. But Hollandsworth confirmed the director’s commitment to keep Tiede in his garage apartment. “When Bernie comes out, he wants to take care of him,” said Hollandsworth, who helped write the script for Bernie. Though he has been involved with dozens of films, Linklater has been less connected with mainstream Hollywood than with a half-hip, half-homespun Texas folk culture that buoyed his early indie-style hits, including the delightfully aimless Slacker and Dazed and Confused. Released in April 2012, Bernie took in about $9.2 million at the domestic box office. Davidson — played by Matthew McConaughey — said Tiede had mercy-prone local supporters who felt a lighter sentence might be called for. But Davidson was only persuaded of that when Jodi Cole, a lawyer and a fan of Linklater’s film, started digging through loose ends and discovered that Tiede had some self-help books for sexual abuse victims. The real life Davidson, a 66-year-old prosecutor , said that the reduced sentence has produced pushback in a community where there was originally substantial support for Tiede. “When I first got Bernie arrested,” he said, “people told me, ‘Oh no, you should never arrest Bernie. Bernie is a good person. He couldn’t kill anybody’.” Now, he said, many Panola County residents have forged sharply revised opinions after seeing the movie. “They saw a guy kill an old woman, put her in the freezer and go around partying and spending her money,” said the prosecutor. Among those displeased with Tiede’s release is Nugent’s granddaughter. “It doesn’t feel like justice,” said Shanna Nugent, speaking on the Today Show.
