SC man who plotted to steal widow’s $20 million estate is going to federal prison

A man who befriended a wealthy elderly widow and then schemed to get her to change her $20 million will so he and a friend would inherit her money was sentenced to two years in prison Monday in federal court.

Thomas Bateman Jr., 50, of Aiken, who sold embalming oil to funeral homes, had earlier pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

“The things I have done, I am not proud of... I know I was wrong,” Bateman told U.S. Judge Joe Anderson before he was sentenced.

He asked for leniency. He got it.

Federal sentencing guidelines called for Bateman to receive from six years to eight years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Matthews told Anderson that a variety factors — Bateman’s lack of a criminal record, the fact that no money was actually stolen and his non-leadership role in a two-person conspiracy — made a low sentence appropriate.

And, noted Matthews, Bateman had provided information in the case that led to criminal charges being filed against Cody Lee Anderson, an Aiken funeral home owner who was the real “architect” of the plot to steal the widow’s estate.

Anderson (no relation to Judge Anderson) pled guilty last month to the same charge — conspiracy to commit bank fraud — for which Bateman was sentenced Monday.

“The government feels a sentence of 24 months would be sufficient (for Bateman),” Matthews said.

Because Anderson instigated the fraud scheme, he should receive “somewhere around 30 months,” Matthews said. Both men had spent a lot of time planning and scheming to use a phony will to steal the widow’s estate, he said.

No date has been set for Cody Anderson’s sentencing.

Although Judge Anderson went along with the government’s recommendation, he said the two years in prison is a “substantial departure” from a six- to eight-year recommended sentence.

Judge Anderson mentioned that Bateman and Cody Anderson had used a form for their phony will they had gotten off the internet.

“Those do-it-yourself wills ought to be outlawed,” Anderson said. “If they (Bateman and Cody Anderson) had gone to a real lawyer, this might not have happened.”

Bateman’s attorney, Marion Moses, told the judge that his client’s family situation — he’s been married 17 years, is “very, very involved” in his two children’s lives and is active in church and social affairs in his community — warranted a low sentence.

“He’s the breadwinner for his family,” Moses said, adding that Bateman is very remorseful.

Moses also said Bateman didn’t know the widow had $20 million in assets — “$1 million, he might have known, but not $20 million.”

Matthews disagreed, telling the judge Bateman knew the extent of the widow’s wealth. “Mr. Bateman certainly knew how much money she had.”

According to evidence in the case, Bateman became close with the woman over 10 years, from 2012 to 2022. During that time, Bateman did a variety of favors for the woman, who was 78 in 2012 when their friendship started and 88 when she died in 2022. The favors included running errands and taking her to buy food and to appointments.

In 2019, at her request, Bateman assumed a power of attorney role with her so he could write checks for various expenses. About that time, she began slipping into dementia and had mental health issues, according to evidence in the case.

The woman was identified in court records as Margaret Crandall, the widow of a well-to-do nuclear scientist, John Lou Crandall, who died in 2012. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, he had participated in the design and development of production reactors at the Savannah River Plant, now the Savannah River Site.

In 2012, Bateman was working for the Aiken funeral home that Cody Anderson subsequently bought. The two stayed friends, although Bateman left in 2018 and took a job selling embalming fluid to funeral homes, according to evidence in the case.

In 2021, a year before Crandall died, Bateman and Cody Anderson hatched a scheme to get her to sign a new will leaving her assets to them. Bateman drove Crandall to the funeral home, and Cody Anderson brought three employees out to his car to witness Crandall’s signing the new document, according to evidence in the case.

The fake will said that all of Crandall’s assets would go to the two men, with Anderson receiving about $1 million for serving as the estate’s personal representative and Bateman receiving the remaining $19 million.

The scheme was discovered in 2022 after Margaret Crandall died. After legal challenges, a will she had made in 2001 was upheld and her money wound up going to various charities and friends as she had originally intended.

Moses said Bateman is glad he got caught and won’t get the money he planned on stealing.

“He is relieved that it didn’t happen,” Moses said. “His family is the loser in this case.”

During Monday’s hearing, Moses suggested the judge should give Bateman an even lower sentence than the mercifully short sentence he got, but Matthews objected.

“To go down any further would not be just,” Matthews said. “It would be a bridge too far.”

The FBI investigated the case. Besides Matthews, assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Holliday prosecuted the case.

This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 5:52 PM.