Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast · Ben Gibson

Sheila Davalloo - Master Manipulator - Part 1

·58 min·3 clips

Sheila made Paul leave his own condo for monthly, fake visits from a brother who was never there.

1. Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast centers this part one on Sheila Davalloo and the early steps in her pattern of deception. 2. Ben and Nicole host the episode, and their role is to frame Sheila's history, relationships, and escalating lies for the audience. 3. The episode asks how a woman with a disciplined academic path and a stable public image could manage a double life around Paul Christos and Nelson Sessler. 4. Sheila was born on May 11, 1969, in Iran, and her family left during the Iranian revolution because daily life had become dangerous. 5. Her parents were medical and health professionals, and the household treated education as non-negotiable in Westchester County, New York. 6. Friends described Sheila as quiet, studious, and highly structured, with little tolerance for failure. 7. Sheila's younger brother had schizophrenia, and she became deeply protective of him while presenting herself as his emotional anchor. 8. She studied biochemistry at Stony Brook University and later pursued a master's degree in public health at New York Medical College. 9. Sheila married Farid Musavi while still young, through an arrangement shaped by family pressure and cultural expectations. 10. During graduate school she met Paul Christos, first through his private study group, and their relationship moved from coursework to an affair. 11. When Farid discovered the affair, the marriage ended, and Sheila framed the breakup as necessary rather than reckless. 12. Paul Christos later married Sheila in May 2000 after both families approved the match and her parents helped provide a condo in Pleasantville, New York. 13. Paul enrolled in a doctoral program at Columbia University, taught undergraduate classes, and spent long hours on research and clinical trials. 14. Sheila worked in pharmaceutical research, and the marriage drifted into logistics, work stress, and separate routines instead of shared time. 15. In 2001 she met Nelson Sessler at Purdue Pharma in Stamford, Connecticut, where both were working on research and clinical projects. 16. Sheila and Nelson moved from work conversations to private lunches, long calls, and a full-blown affair by the summer of 2001. 17. Sheila told Paul that her brother needed visits where Paul had to leave the condo and remove every visible trace of himself. 18. Those monthly visits created space for Nelson to stay at the apartment while he believed Sheila lived alone and was single. 19. Sheila also recast her own affair as a fictional workplace triangle involving Melissa, Jack, and Annalisa, then asked Paul for advice on the story. 20. The episode's style is conversational and detail-heavy, with Ben and Nicole pausing to explain the social and emotional mechanics of Sheila's deception. 21. Listeners who like true-crime relationship fraud, stalking, and long con narratives will likely want this episode. 22. Listeners looking for a short, self-contained case summary without relationship detail may skip it.

As heard by us

A quiet marriage and a workplace connection bring the pressure around Sheila Davalloo into focus.

This episode follows the emotional strain around a marriage that has gone quiet, then turns toward Sheila's workplace connection with Nelson Sessler at Purdue Pharma in Stanford.

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Why you'd press play

You get a quiet, distant marriage, Sheila meeting Nelson at Purdue, and a darker part two waiting just ahead.

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