“Well, that was fun, but it wasn’t at all realistic!” is an often shared opinion by readers after snapping closed an engrossing though twisty thriller. I always find those kind of assessments amusing because:
- Don’t we read fiction to escape reality?
- No matter how far-fetched the plot, I bet I could find a real-life example that is even more outlandish because “Truth is stranger than fiction,” as Mark Twain once said.
When I decided to begin researching for my book The Three Mrs. Greys—a novel about Cyrus Grey, a conman who marries three different women and lies unconscious in the hospital room while his wives are left to unravel his secrets and solve his attempted murder—I quickly stumbled upon plenty of real-life inspiration. It wasn’t hard to find true crime examples of bigamy, jealousy, and foul play with plotlines that would leave even readers shocked by the twists and turns.
A Wealthy Doctor, His Two Wives, and a Murder Plot
Like Cyrus, Dr. Jean-Claude Dominique’s house of lies crumbled in April 1999 in a hospital room when it was revealed that he had married two women and had two different families—one in his native Haiti and the other, in New Jersey. While Dr. Dominique lay dying in his hospital bed after a hit-and-run accident, his first wife, Eliette Dominique, and his second wife, Betsy Dominique, met in-person for the very first time.
After Dr. Dominique’s death, Eliette and Betsy were left to wrestle over his estate. A New Jersey judge ruled in Eliette’s favor, accepting the argument that she’d married him first and Dr. Dominique was only able to marry his second wife, Betsy, due to a forged divorce decree.
The judge’s ruling seemed like it would have been the logical end to Dr. Dominique’s story: A doctor’s long-held secrets are revealed, wives spar in court, and both families go their separate ways and try to rebuild their lives. But like all twisty thrillers, the story continued, taking an unexpected turn when Dr. Dominique’s brother, Aly, came on to page and decided to get involved. According to reports, Aly believed Betsy was the rightful heir to Dr. Dominique’s estate—but this belief may have been motivated by some self-interest: Police suspected that Aly thought he could gain access and control of his late-brother’s estate through Betsy, an alleged childhood friend.
From there, Aly hatched a plot to eliminate Eliette. With $10,000, he hired two hitmen to murder her, and in October 2000, the hitmen, Marvin Geden and Alexander Exama, ambushed Eliette as she left for work from her home in New York. Though seriously injured, Eliette managed to survive the shooting, and Geden and Exama were soon arrested.
Like his brother’s lies, Aly’s plans quickly unraveled. Geden and Exama pointed to him as the grand orchestrator of the murder plot, and in July 2002, Aly was found guilty of second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy in the second-degree. He was sentenced to eight to 25 years in prison, Geden received 19 years, and Exama got a 12-year prison sentence.
A Home Invasion That Wasn’t What It Seemed
In August 2007, Myra Morton called police and told them that an intruder had broken into her family’s mansion just outside of Philadelphia and shot and killed her husband, Jereleigh “Seddik” Morton. But after examining the scene, police were suspicious of Myra’s story. Firstly, there were no signs of a break-in and secondly, Jereleigh had been shot twice in the head—with his own gun.
Under further questioning, Myra’s story changed. She would admit to the murder, confessing that she had killed Jereleigh, a handyman turned millionaire. Jereleigh had plans the next morning to travel to Morocco to be with his second wife whom he’d met over the internet. Though Myra had agreed to the second marriage initially, prosecutors speculated that jealousy around Jereleigh’s relationship with his second wife and control of the couple’s $6 million in assets was enough motive for Myra to pull the trigger.
In April 2008, she pleaded guilty to third-degree murder.
A Poisonous Heart
Four years after Janet Overton, a popular trustee for the Capistrano Unified School District in California, suddenly collapsed in her driveway while headed to a whale watching trip, police received a phone call telling them to look at Janet’s husband, Richard, as the possible culprit of her untimely demise.
Richard had a history of devious, manipulative behavior—at least according to his previous wives. While he was still married to his first wife, Dorothy Boyer, he secretly married his second wife, Caroline Draper under the fake name “Richard Halderman.” Boyer would file for divorce in 1969 and Draper would file for an annulment after the bombshell discovery of each other’s existence.
A day after the divorce, Richard married his third wife, Janet. Boyer would later allege in court documents that Richard may have moved onto his next marriage, but he did not seem to take the end of their 17-year marriage well. She soon started to suspect after developing rashes and skin irritation that her ex might be sneaking into her home and poisoning her food. The allegations might have seemed far-fetched, but in 1973, a crime lab analyzed Boyer’s food and drinks and found trace amounts of selenium. According to the sheriff’s investigator who handled Boyer’s case, after Richard’s fingerprints were found on one of Boyer’s coffee cans, he confessed that he had been spiking her milk and shampoo with Drano and prescription medicine. Though her fears were validated, Boyer decided not to move forward with prosecuting her ex.
But she did come forward in 1992 and called police with the tip, telling them that Richard had tried to poison her back in the 1970s and they should check to see if Janet had also been poisoned prior to her death as well. Four years had passed though and Janet had been cremated. But forensic experts were able to test frozen samples of Janet’s blood and tissue and determine that she had been poisoned with a lethal dose of cyanide. Police also unearthed computer files from Richard showing his anger at Janet, whom he believed was cheating on him.
In 1995, Richard was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison and he died there in 2009.
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