Accused Killers Catch a Break

by Cathy Scott

Two murder cases with women as the accused killers have taken similar -- and unusual -- turns. Each was instantly labeled the “Black Widow.” And both women stood to gain millions should their husbands die.

In the first case, San Juan and Manhattan socialite Barbara Kogan was indicted late last year for the 1990 murder of her millionaire husband George. She stood accused of convincing her attorney to hire a hitman to kill George. Kogan’s estranged husband, with whom she was in the middle of a nasty divorce, was shot to death in broad daylight while George was walking from a neighborhood market to his live-in girlfriend’s high-rise apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Joel Seidemann, the Manhattan assistant district attorney who has been on the case for nearly two decades, is expected to refile a fresh charge against Kogan by the end of this year. During Kogan's arraignment in November 2008, Seidemann described the suspect as "a very angry woman."

"But when that anger became so overwhelming," he told the judge, "she decided to litigate the divorce through the bullets of a gun."

The second defendant is Margaret Rudin, charged and convicted of killing her husband, wealthy real estate investor Ronald Rudin, then driving the body to a remote area on the shore of Lake Mojave 45 miles outside of Las Vegas, stuffing him inside an antique truck and setting it on fire.

The commonalities with the two women, both of whom are now 65 years old, are many. Rudin, who was convicted of murder, has been granted a new trial. Rudin’s conviction was overturned in December 2008 by Clark County District Court Judge Sally Loehrer, who ruled that Rudin, who has spent the last nine years in a Nevada state prison, had “ineffective counsel” during her first trial.

And Barbara Kogan, accused of second-degree murder in the contract killing of her estranged husband, has had the charge dismissed on a technicality. In July, State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus ruled that because another grand jury had failed to indict Kogan in the 1990s, prosecutors needed judicial permission to empanel a new grand jury that handed down the indictment against Kogan last year. The prosecution, he said, failed to get that permission.

Both women are expected to be in their respective courtrooms on opposite ends of the country sometime next year. Rudin’s first trial, which was much publicized and lasted 10 weeks, was one of Las Vegas's highest profile murder cases. For Kogan, “48 Hours” and “Dateline” have already made arrangements to be in the courtroom for the trial, which is expected to last eight weeks.

While prosecutors in both crimes claim greed as the motive, in the Kogan case, the only evidence against her is circumstantial at best -- unless, by trial time, the prosecution comes up with more.

As for Rudin, it's mostly circumstantial as well, with hard evidence against her shaky. Her husband was missing in 1994, his car found at a strip club. Later, a boy and his father, out fishing together, discovered the burnt trunk and body near the shore of Lake Mojave on the Nevada side of the water. A gun, said to be the murder weapon, found months later in the lake, was not registered to Rudin or her husband, so that connection was never made, just conjectured.

After Rudin was granted a new trial, her new attorney, Christopher Oram, told reporters, "Obviously, we're very happy with the judge's ruling and look forward to going to trial.”

Kogan’s new counsel, high-profile criminal defense lawyer Barry Levin, said he’s looking forward to going to trial as well. “I intend to represent her zealously. I think she will be acquitted,” Levin said.

It all will unfold in their respective courtrooms. For the prosecution, both cases at this juncture appear to be uphill battles. But you never know what might happen as both sides sides duke it out in court.

Photo of Barbara Kogan in court (top) courtesy of the New York Daily News and photo of Margaret Rudin courtesy of TruTV.

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Did the “Black Widow” Kill Her Husband?

by Cathy Scott

News late last year that convicted murderer Margaret Rudin was granted a new Las Vegas trial came as a big surprise. After all, the courts and the media, who dubbed her “The Black Widow,” had convicted her eight years earlier.

Margaret wrote me from jail after a friend of hers e-mailed me about Margaret’s hopes for a new trial. Coincidentally, I’d met Margaret before. When my mother and sister, antiques dealers, visited from out of town. we’d always stop by Margaret’s antiques store on West Charleston Boulevard not far from the home she shared with her fifth husband, 64-year-old millionaire realtor Ron Rudin.

Margaret was soft spoken, polite, and unassuming. Other than that, seeing her in her store half a dozen times was unremarkable. It was that quiet demeanor, I believe, that led to half of her troubles.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that Margaret, the quiet shop owner, was named a suspect in the murder of her husband. Prosecutors contended that Margaret and an unknown accomplice shot Ron several times in the head as he slept in the master bedroom of the couple’s home.

The prosecution claimed that Margaret and her accomplice cut off Ron’s head to fit his body into an antique trunk, and then they took the body and the trunk to Nelson's Landing at Lake Mohave and set it on fire. In January 1995, as a father and his boy hiked the area, they stumbled across Ron Rudin’s skull, which had rolled down a hill from the burned out trunk above.

Margaret’s story gained national notoriety when, as police and the district attorney’s office started closing in on her. Instead of staying to fight, Margaret, shy and reserved, fled town. She was featured several times on Fox TV’s “America’s Most Wanted” show. Two years after fleeing Las Vegas, a man in Massachusetts recognized Margaret as a neighbor and turned her in to police. A sting was set up when Margaret and her roommate ordered pizza. She was arrested by in a Boston suburb after a police officer posed as a pizza deliveryman. Police surrounded the house and they pulled Margaret, wearing a black wig, from a closet, where she’d hidden from them. She had been living, first in Arizona, then in Massachusetts, for two years under an assumed name. Because Margaret fled, many figured she was guilty; otherwise, why would she flee? If you believe Margaret, it was because she was losing her legal fight against the trustees of husband's estate, who had turned on her. She was afraid she couldn't win.

Margaret wasn't the only one who stood to gain from Ron Rudin’s death. The defense suggested there were others who had a motive to murder Ron, including the trustees and beneficiaries, who took control of Ron’s fortunes after Margaret was accused of murder. Many gained millions from his death. Margaret, because she was accused, then convicted, of killing Ron, was ousted from the will.

The mantra in the Rudin case this time around looks like it will be “follow the money.” With Margaret, who was given 60 percent of her husband’s estimated $10 million in assets, out of the picture; the trustees’ cut of the estate was much larger. According to testimony of Ron's associates, he wasn't the most popular man in Las Vegas and was known for his falling outs with people. Others, the defense contended at the time, had reasons to want Ron dead. It all will play out again in a Nevada courtroom, probably in early 2010.

District Court Judge Joseph Bonaventure, now retired from the bench, presided over the first trial, which lasted nine weeks. At Margaret’s sentencing, Bonaventure told Margaret, “You're going to be locked away in the cold confines of your prison cell, never to be heard from again.”

It seems Margaret Rudin has the last word after all.

Scott is a true crime author who splits her time between Las Vegas and San Diego. Her latest book—The Rough Guide to True Crime (Penguin)—is scheduled for release Aug. 31.

Photo courtesy of CBS News

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YOUR TURN: Why Does Everyone in Betty Neumar's Life Die?

by Michelle Feuer

I am thirty-five years old and I should have babies—not grandmothers—on the brain. As a producer for CBS 48 Hours, I rushed short notice to a story in Virginia for a colleague whose grandparent died, which, oddly, was on the same day that my 90-year-old grandparents were coming in from L.A. to Atlanta for a visit. All these grandmothers made me remember a case that I started in May, but which came to a complete halt. The jarring stop contrasts with the international media coverage and piles of investigative work by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Mitch Weiss, and the endless stream of oddities that I haven’t found answers to.

Bad Luck Grandmother or Black Widow?

The case of 76-year-old grandmother and hairdresser Betty Neumar made headlines last spring. In May, a source in Augusta, Georgia told me Betty had been arrested for soliciting the murder of her former husband, Harold Gentry, way back in 1986. Solicitation of murder, a murder that happened in 1986? Why should we all be so interested? (This is the second Women in Crime Ink story on the case.)

CBS 48 Hours allowed me to dig deeper. Guided by reports from then-AP reporter Mitch Weiss, who was on the ground in Albemarle, North Carolina (where Betty had lived with her husband, Harold Gentry), I learned that Betty Neumar has five dead husbands—and a dead son.

The Body Count Begins

Betty was in Ironton, Ohio when she met her first husband, Clarence Malone, whom she married at age 18. Shocking for the 1950s, Betty filed a public complaint against him claiming abuse. I could never find a divorce record, but family members now say the couple split eighteen years before Clarence Malone was found dead with a gunshot wound to the back of his head at his auto repair shop in 1970. Betty and Malone had son Gary together who was later to be adopted by Betty’s second husband (see below). No one was arrested for Malone’s murder.

Also known as “Bee,” Betty stayed in Ohio and married James Flynn (Husband #2, who adopted her young son, Gary). And the question marks just keep getting bigger when looking into this stage in her life. Betty reportedly told investigators that James Flynn died on a pier somewhere in New York in the 1950s, and that she had no other information.

Decades later, her son, Gary, would die of a "self-inflicted gunshot wound" after his mother took out a life insurance policy on him, according to her grandson Jeff Carstensen.

Before you can understand the death of her son Gary, you have to understand her move to Florida and marriage to Husband #3, Richard Sills.

Did Husband #3 Know Too Much?

Richard Sills was a Navy guy and in July 1965, Sills was found dead in the couple’s home in the Florida Keys. Betty reportedly told investigators that they were arguing when Sills snapped, took out a gun and shot himself.

Again, the investigation didn’t lead anywhere at the time. After Betty’s arrest this spring, NCIS investigator Mark Barstow found military records about the case, but without an autopsy it wasn’t clear how many bullets entered Sills’ body. Recent reports suggest that Sills may have been shot twice, not once, although there is no solid proof for such claims. The records are simply gone or never existed at all.

The way it has been explained to me is that due to the Florida statute of limitations, Sills’ body cannot be exhumed. Does his death scream motive for Betty’s son, Gary Flynn who died in 1985? Gary Flynn was reportedly in the house at the time of Sills’ death. Was he going to blow the whistle?

More Nuptials, More Funerals . . .

Husband #4, Harold Gentry, has been the most publicized death and the one that sparked the big dig into Betty's background. In 1968, the couple married in Georgia. At 36, she was the older woman; he was 29. Didn’t he ask about her past? Yes. According to Harold’s brother, Al Gentry, Betty told Harold that she’d been married before, but that her first husband had died of cancer. She worked as a school bus driver, waitress, and did hair. He was gone a lot, driving trucks.

The marriage lasted for two decades until Harold was found dead in the house with multiple gunshot wounds. Al Gentry and his brother, Richard, said Betty collected at least $20,000 in life insurance, plus other benefits from the military and sold the couple's house and other items. The death remained unsolved.

After Gentry’s death, Betty moved on to Husband #5, John Neumar. They stayed married for fourteen years until he died in October. The cause of death was due to sepsis. Laboratory analysis of the urn and ashes came up with nothing of interest.

Betty’s attorney in North Carolina, Charles Parnell, spoke to CBS 48 Hours on-camera, but sticks strictly to the subject of Betty’s solicitation case. She is currently out on bail, despite suggestions by prosecutors that she may have at least 28 aliases and an overseas bank account. We’d all love to hear Betty’s side of things—especially because there is relatively no paper trail to sort out truth from possible falsehood.

Today, Harold Gentry's brother, Al, still never leaves the house without a gun. He believes that Betty Neumar isn’t done yet. Is he right? Regardless of the answer, the truth should not be buried with Betty Neumar.

Michelle Feuer is a producer with CBS 48 Hours Mystery and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Her passion is developing shows for CBS which end in remarkable stories being told to millions of people. She refuses to have a boring day and tries to be in the outdoors as much as possible. She is always inspired by her colleague, Jenna Jackson, who got her to blog for Women in Crime Ink.

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Victims Matter More than Money

by Diane Fanning

Last week, a spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff's Office in Florida said that the case is too old and the investigation would cost too much to continue. That bothers me--a lot.

I am saddened but do understand when a law enforcement agency says that they have no more leads, no suspects and nowhere to turn. Dead ends can end an investigation. But money should not block the path to justice. And in the case in question, there is a suspect.

In 1965, Nelos Sills' death was ruled a suicide. This conclusion was based on the statement of his wife Betty Sills. According to her, she and her husband were alone in their mobile home on Big Coppitt Key. They argued and Nelos pulled out a gun and shot himself--once. An autopsy was not performed.

But Nelos was in the Navy and the Naval Criminal Investigation Service had a file on the case. According to their documents, Nelos was shot twice--definitely not a typical suicide. One bullet from the pistol went through his heart, the other sliced his liver.

The current investigators wanted to exhume his body but they were told since it might be voluntary manslaughter, the statute of limitations had run out. Of course, if that assumption is wrong and Betty commited first or even second degree murder, there is not time limit. How can they determine that it was the lesser crime without an autopsy?

Also, according to the Navy, the couple was not alone. Betty's two children were there. Gary Flynn, her son, is dead. Betty's daughter, Peggy Saunders, lives in Ocala, Florida, and remembers the argument and the shooting. (Betty, Gary, Peggy, on the right) Monroe County investigators did not question her. Why? The same Sheriff's Office spokesperson said that "they just didn't have the money to fly all over the state."

Betty received life insurance after the death of Nelos--she benefited from his death.

Where is Betty now at the age of 76? You've heard her name in the news recently. She's suspected black widow, Betty Neumar. This past summer, she was arrested in North Carolina for the 1986 homicide of the fourth of her five dead husbands, Harold Gentry. Nelos Sills was her third husband.

Betty is out on a $300,000 bail bond awaiting trial for soliciting three different people to commit first-degree murder in the six weeks before Harold was found shot dead in his home. In Ohio, Betty is being investigated in the 1970 shooting death of her first husband, Clarence Malone. They are also investigating what happened to her son, Gary, whose death in 1985 was ruled a suicide. Betty collected life insurance when he died, too.

Georgia has recently closed their investigation into the death of her fifth husband, John Neumar. His family feels the closure of that case, too, was premature. And no one is looking into the death of her second husband, James Flynn. Betty told North Carolina investigators that he "died on a pier" somewhere in New York in the mid-fifties.

I ran across a similar cases while researching the murders committed by serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells. One investigator told me that he didn't see any sense in wasting taxpayer money on an investigation when the perpetrator was already sitting on death row in Texas. "If anybody'll take care of him, Texas will."

Yes, he is right. But a victim cries out for justice and a family waits on the sidelines for answers. The victim's death and the family's questions do matter.

Murder investigation--particularly in a cold case--is an expensive proposition. And time-consuming as well. But don't our law enforcement agencies owe it to the victim and their families to pursue justice until all leads have been exhausted?

I understand if law enforcement has to limit the resources and make an older, expensive investigation a lower priority. But to give up because it would cost too much? It sounds too much like putting a price tag on someone's life.

That, I will never understand.

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A Matter of the Heart

by Pat Brown

A love story, perfect for a made-for-television movie of the week, is rapidly becoming more suited for an HBO murder mystery special. Cheryl Cottle married Sonny Graham, the recipient of her previous husband's heart, and with this wonderful gift carried from one husband to the next, the story should have ended with some cloyingly sweet song about "Hearts that Bind Us Together in Love, " or some such drivel. Even the fact that Cheryl's first husband shot himself to death shouldn't ruin this endearing story, for from the sad end of one marriage came the happy start of another.

Unfortunately, her marriage to Sonny ended the same way with something equally as nasty in the woodshed. Sonny was found with a shotgun wound to the throat, a scenario eerily similar to the untimely death of the earlier husband/heart donor. Originally Sonny's death by gunshot was ruled self-inflicted, but now the police are having second thoughts about the manner of death. I would have to believe commonsense stepped in when they started checking out the circumstances of this not-s0-fairy-tale ending.

It turns out Sonny is Husband Number Five for Cheryl (pictured right with Sonny). She runs though them rather quickly, one way or the other. At the time she married the sixty-five-year-old Sonny, Cottle was thirty-eight years old. I guess it doesn't much matter about age when you know your husband isn't going to be hanging around that long anyway, regardless of how he makes his exit. However, I think the police are going to be looking mighty closely at just how the two dead husbands enriched Cheryl's life. Sonny was surely a generous fellow; he bought Cheryl and her kids a nice house before they were even married, and somewhere around that time, or shortly thereafter, she married Husband Number Four. That marriage lasted but a short time and as soon as it ended, Cheryl hurried on to marry Sonny. Then, after four years of wedded bliss, the always optimistic and cheerful Sonny "ends his life." Does Cheryl stand to inherit a whole lot of money upon Sonny's death, or is there a hefty life insurance policy on Husband Number Five? Or does she simply have another man waiting in the wings? Or is Cheryl truly a grieving widow?

While there is not yet any evidence of any wrongdoing and Cheryl Cottle may simply be a woman burdened with incredibly bad luck, there are enough red flags to make one want to investigate the death of Sonny and the previous "suicide" of Terry Cottle a bit more thoroughly.

What comes quickly to mind is the possibility Cheryl Cottle is a "black widow." She is in a very common profession for female serial killers - nursing. Cheryl is a licensed practical nurse who has worked in a prison infirmary and for hospices (one of which is involved in a lawsuit with Cheryl). The Georgia investigators no doubt will be doing a check of deaths in these hospices to see if any of the patients died of an earlier and odder death than was expected, even for one terminally ill. They will also want to know if Cheryl "befriended" any of these dying people and, if in doing so, she walked away with some financial gain that may have been intended for family members (cash, jewelry, etc.).

It is rare for lightening to strike twice in the same place, and for Cheryl Cottle to lose two out of five husbands in the very same way makes one just a little more than suspicious. I would be very surprised indeed to find out that both these men committed suicide and that Cheryl had no hand in their deaths. I look forward to the results of the police investigation.

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