Sounak Sengupta
Investigation Discovery’s ‘Who The (Bleep) Did I Marry? Serial Spouse’ chronicles the antiques of a serial bigamist, Vernon Pierce. He was found to have married four different women in three different states in early 1994. The episode interviews his different former wives, and explores how the law eventually caught up to him.
Who is Vernon Pierce?
33-year-old Vernon Pierce, who claimed he was a former model, went on a wedding spree in early 1994. According to reports, he married Charmaine Whalen, then 23, of Palmdale, California, on April 29; Jamillah Thompson, then 21, of Phoenix, Arizona, on May 11; and LeMitri Reed, then 27, of Las Vegas, Nevada, on June 5. However, his first wife was LaDranda Pierce, a legal secretary in Phoenix, Arizona. She had tied the knot with Vernon in Los Angeles in August 1989 and had a young 4-year-old son, Jared, when they eventually separated in 1991.
But they were still not legally divorced when Vernon went on his marriage spree, marrying three separate women from three different states. According to him, he had spread his time among the three women, telling them he was a salesman, model, or engineer. Clarifying he lived off his wives and the women he dated, Vernon said, “I didn’t have a job. I didn’t have time.” However, his web of lies began to untangle on June 13, 1994, when his second wife — Charmaine — called the Glendale police, asking them to check her husband’s townhouse.
According to police sources, Vernon had told her that his job kept him on the road, but she was worried when he disappeared for longer than usual. Glendale Officer Jim Toomey stated when some police officers went to Vernon’s townhouse in the Phoenix suburb, they were surprised to find another woman knocking on the door. Identifying herself as Jamillah Thompson, she claimed she was married to Vernon. While the confused authorities searched his townhouse, they found a 3-by-5-inch index card reading “Who to Marry.”
The index card carried the names of his three latest wives and other entries that read — “Celeste, middle of May” and “Kadina, end of April.” According to police sources, the authorities were yet to trace the names. Meanwhile, Charmaine and Jamillah teamed up with a detective and tracked down Vernon’s two other wives. The Glendale police notified California and Nevada authorities about the marriage records they uncovered from those states. As law enforcement officials began searching for him in September, Vernon voluntarily surrendered in late 1994.
Where is Vernon Pierce Now?
Turning himself in on December 27, 1994, he was charged with bigamy and faced up to four years in prison and a $300,000 fine. Vernon claimed he surrendered because he wanted to start a new life. Free on $1,500 bail, he once said, “I’ve wasted five years of my life with this. That kind of life is not what it may seem to be.” He explained the situation had become so complicated that he had kept notes of what he had told each of his wives. However, he refused to explain why he married so many times except for putting it down as his fantasy.
Vernon’s first wife, LaDranda, wiped a tear as she muttered, “Why, why? I really want to know why.” She added, “Vernon has always been a really nice person. But he does know how to manipulate people.” Vernon pleaded guilty on March 3, 1995, and said, “I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence by putting up some mock defense.” The court subsequently sentenced him to five months in prison, placed him on three years of probation, and ordered him to perform 250 hours of community service.
Court documents showed he did nearly a month behind bars and served the rest of the sentence under house arrest. According to reports, Vernon claimed he intended to start his life over with his fourth wife, LeMitri Reed since she was “the only one who was really standing” with him. However, he dropped another shocking piece of news in January 1996 when he proclaimed he had tested positive for the AIDS virus. He alleged he had been physically intimate with about 20 women, including his wives, during the decade since he was last tested.
Vernon did not present any documentation of the test results and claimed he did not suspect any AIDS symptoms when his health declined over the last couple of years. He also informed the media that his fourth wife, with whom he was living, had tested negative for the virus. However, he alleged he did not know about his other former wives’ health status since the court had prohibited him from having any contact with them. He added, “I feel really terrible. I hope nobody else is infected.” As for his current standing, well, it appears as if Vernon simply prefers to lead a quiet life well away from the limelight these days.
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