| Paul “Cornfed” Schinder was thrilled
that someone would take care of Bane and Hera that would treat
them the way they needed to be treated to keep them in a healthy
environment. Marjorie would get up early three days a week
to cook bacon, steak, and fresh hamburger to mix in their dog
food. Robert was very proud of both dogs, especially Bane.
He bragged that Bane, “loved the ladies” and discussed
how the dog developed an erection the first time he met Marjorie.
That comments was grounds for suspicion, and one that I’m
sure raised many an eyebrow. That comment set the grounds for
one of the more notorious rumors that plagued this case. A
long series of correspondence went back and forth before Robert
and Marjorie went to pick up the dogs. After they arrived in
San Francisco, Marjorie took both Bane and Hera to see a vet.
The Dr. was very cautious with the animals. Both Bane and Hera
weighed over 100 pounds each and were intimidating, but the
Dr. was not threatened by either. He had seen many dogs and
had evaluated all breeds and types. The two Presa Canarios
had some health problems, due to substandard care while on
Janet Coombs farm. Being chained outside, rain or shine, and
not fed well, both dogs were reacting more positively now that
they were being cared for. But there was something nagging
the vet about Bane and Hera. He wrote a letter to Marjorie,
stating that “These dogs would be a liability in any
home,” Marjorie later claimed she saw the letter only
after the attack on Diane Whipple, she said that she never
knew the Dr sent the letter. Hard to believe? You decide.
Marjorie
and Robert took Bane and Hera in and their lives in San
Francisco started to change. They were taking a lot
of pro-bono work, helping inmates sue the system for what
they believed was injustice and sub-standard care in a state
run facility. Marjorie and Robert ran their lives around
the dogs. They were huge and scared many people that lived
in neighborhood. There were many occasions that people were
curious about the unusual breed. Some people pet them and
came away with a feeling of unease. When Marjorie and Robert
walked the dogs, they were often approached and met with
a sense of foreboding. Marjorie and Robert didn’t care.
DA’s office prosecutor, James Hammer said,” These
dogs were bred to be aggressive. And Knoller and Noel got
off on the fact that their dogs scared people.” When
the hearing was held to see if there was enough evidence
to charge them with a crime, more than 30 people came forward
to complain about Bane and Hera. Bane had bitten several
people, Diane Whipple being one of them. Sadly, she had been
killed in a way no one should have to die, and would not
be alive to talk about how scared she was by the massive
animals.
Nearby
their apartment, there is a large park that many people
took their dogs on sunny days. On one particular day,
a woman named Kathy Brooks, was in the park with her dog
when she saw Robert Noel walking Bane through the park. She
had seen the dogs with Marjorie in the past, and confronted
Noel. She told him that he was not being a responsible pet
owner by having a dog that there had been so many neighborhood
complaints about. He responded by saying,”I can walk
my dog wherever I God damn well please,” and walked
off, leaving Kathy stunned by his arrogance and his total
indifference over the fact that Bane and Hera were dangerous
animals. The dogs were notorious in the community and soon
they would be notorious to everyone in America.
Robert
and Marjorie acted as surrogate parents to Paul. Bane and
Hera were well taken care of, and Paul,
Noel and
Marjorie had a steady stream of correspondence. Noel wrote
Paul a letter that said how happy he was that Paul trusted
him enough to let them inside his mind, and would trust them
to “…invade his body, ” Then came the photo
controversy. During the search of the apartment many incriminating
letters were found between Noel, Knoller, and Schineder.
Many of them were very sexually explicit, leading some to
believe that there were photos of Marjorie engaged in bestiality
with Bane. It certainly didn’t help the case when in
the hearing; Marjorie referred to one of the dogs as her “certified
lick therapist”. The penal system got wind of this
and locked down Paul’s cell to look for photos of Marjorie
engaging in intercourse with Bane but nothing was found.
In a press release, Marjorie said, “A three way fantasy
is normal, many people have them, the most thing you’d
find is possibly a photo with me and Bane where I am topless,
showing my breasts. That’s hardly pornographic, much
less bestiality.” The photos were never found. Many
people were disgusted by the allegations, true or not, and
that just made things worse for Marjorie, worse than she
knew at the time. That accusation would work against not
only her personally, but professionally as well. Her career
was shot, and she knew it. Noel seemed not to care. |
