The Nicest Murderer You Could Ever Wish to Meet

When the public sympathy shifts from the victim to the killer

Bernhardt Tiede Sr. moved with Lela Mae Jester from Russia to the US in 1926, where he secured work as a music professor and choral director at various universities across Texas.

Bernhart Sr. and Lela married in 1957, when she was 25 and he was 45 and their son Bernie was born the following year on August 2nd. Sadly, their family would be torn apart with the death of Lena due to a car accident the same year. Bernhart Sr never forgave himself for that accident since he was driving, and Lela was in the passenger seat, and he turned to drink to drown his sorrows and guilt.

In 1963, when Bernhardt Sr turned 50, he remarried 25-year-old Clara Kathryn Wiley. They went on to have a daughter Anna, and 10 years later, in 1973 Bernhart Sr passed, leaving Bernie to live with his stepmother Clara and sister Anna.

To help support the family Bernie started doing odd jobs at the local funeral home after school.

Bernie’s sister says that Bernie felt that it was his calling to help people and that he enjoyed being able to comfort people in their time of need which is why the funeral home seemed such a natural fit for him.