How many people have had the wedding day of their dreams, a happy marriage that lasted multiple years? Maybe marriage didn't go so well, divorce had to happen, but then you had the second wedding of your dreams? Maybe a third...or a fourth??? Maybe you had five wonderful weddings, but all five husbands died...making everything a bit suspicious?
Let me introduce you to Betty Lafon Neumar, an American woman born in 1931 in Ironton, Ohio. She had been married five times...which I personally don't understand the many, many numbers of marriages some people go through. I feel that if my first and perhaps second try didn't work...I would just prefer to be alone with my coffee, dogs, and books. Is it finally Mr. Right after husband #9? I guess will never know.
Anyway.... Betty found marital bliss for the first time on November 25, 1950, with Clarence Malone, but the happy bliss only lasted for about two years. They got divorced in 1952. This marriage produced one child, Gary, who ended up later getting adopted by her second husband. Oddly, Clarence was shot dead 20 years later on November 27, 1970, in Medina, Ohio. Hmmmmmmm...intriguing.
Husband #2 was James A. Flynn. They were married on February 9, 1953, until his death in 1955. James adopted Gary and Betty gave birth to their daughter, Peggy. First off, she finds someone else to marry in about 1 year after her divorce...not sure I can even learn how to say 'hello' to a guy again in that short amount of time...but that's just me. Second...James died...from being shot dead on a pier in New York...or Betty told some people that James died from freezing to death in a truck in New York City. Another interesting situation.
Well...third time's the charm, right? Maybe...maybe not. In 1956 (another year or less of dating), Betty married Nelos Richard Sills. I will say this marriage lasted a bit longer, so that's something. Although, in 1967, Nelos died from an allegedly self-inflicted gunshot wound sustained during an argument the couple was having in a closed room in their Big Coppitt Key, Florida home. It's reported that he actually died of two gunshot wounds, so ummmmmmm...I'm not sure how that works for a suicide. At the time of his death, Betty's two young children, Gary and Peggy, were in the next room. That is horrible for those children no matter if it was suicide or murder.
I know many of you are thinking that this time, Betty is definitely taking time to grieve and mourn the loss of her second and third husbands (Clarence hadn't been killed yet). Well, you and I are both wrong. In 1968, Betty married Thomas Harold Gentry. This marriage lasted for a long time, until 1986, when they got divorced...just kidding! Thomas was found dead in their home in Norwood, North Carolina. He was shot multiple times.
OK, by 1986, Betty has four dead husbands, what more is there for this lady to deal with? Well..how about husband #5. Betty and John Neumar married in 1991 and were together until 2007. John was found dead from apparent natural causes.
Five dead husbands. Granted, her first marriage did end up in divorce, but that ex-husband was found shot dead how many years later. Why? Is that death related to Betty at all? I don't think we will ever know for sure.
Thanks to Al Gentry, the brother of her fourth husband, Betty Neumar was charged in 2007 with arranging the murder of Harold Gentry who died in 1986. The police investigation uncovered five dead husbands and the news media dubbed Betty as the "Black Widow".
Betty Neumar was charged in 2008 with hiring a hit man to kill her fourth husband, Harold. Betty Neumar was extradited to Albemarle, North Carolina, in June 2008, a month after her arrest. The indictment alleges that Neumar "sought out a former police officer and her neighbor to kill her husband in the months before his death", with the motive allegedly being his $20,000 life insurance policy.
Betty was charged with three counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder, but released in October 2008 on a $300,000 bail bond.
After these charges were placed, investigators had the ashes of her fifth husband, John Neumar, seized and analyzed for traces of arsenic. John's cause of death was listed as sepsis, ischemic colitis, and ileus; symptoms that could point to death by arsenic poisoning. Additionally, his death was considered suspicious when his son, John Neumar, Jr., told authorities that he was not informed of the death until reading about it in a newspaper. John Jr. ended up having to contact Betty directly and she said that his father had already been cremated despite having previously bought a burial plot. *place head scratching moment here* The arsenic results were inconclusive.
So, overall Betty was charged with the death of her fourth husband. I know you're chomping at the bits to find out...was she found guilty? Innocent? Did she get life without parole? Death sentence? Well...Betty was never brought to trial as she died on June 13, 2011, in an Alexandria, Louisiana hospital. Reports are that she died of cancer.
You can find Betty's story on the episode "Matriarchs of Murder" from Investigation Discovery's Deadly Women and there is a BBC One documentary called Black Widow Granny? You can also catch her story on Oxygen's Snapped, season 26, episode 20.
As of December 23, 2012, none of the deaths of her five dead husbands were actively being re-investigated. The death of her first child, Gary Flynn, who died in 1985, was ruled as suicide, although it's been reported that Betty received a $10,000 life insurance payout. Did Betty have anything to do with his death? We don't know.
I'm not against people marrying multiple times...I mean some people meet the "love of their life" every 6 months or so. I'm not against people getting divorced...many reasons why marriages may end and people should make the right decision of splitting up. I can't say I condone the possible murder of your husband, though...even if he....never mind, it's all wrong!
-- Audre
Photo by: Murderpedia.com
Photo by: Murderpedia.com
Sources:
oxygen.com