Bookie's Wife: Another Indictment
Bob Angleton's acquittal was devastating to prosecutor Lyn McClellan, who is still convinced Bob is guilty.
"You could've knocked me over with a feather," he said after the trial, struggling to hold back tears. "As prosecutors, we are the people's lawyers, the victim's lawyers. And you hope that you're going to do the best job, but it wasn't good enough."
But McClellan didn't give up hope; he wanted to see Bob Angleton tried again.
Trying the same person for the same crime more than once, called double jeopardy, is prohibited by the Constitution. That means the state can't try Bob Angleton again. But federal prosecutors can mount their own case.
With this stipulation, the hunt was on for fresh evidence. And that's where Vanessa Leggett came in. Her interest in this case had led to yet another startling, headline-making twist.
A 33-year-old aspiring true-crime writer working on a book about this murder, she knows more about the Angleton brothers than almost anyone.
"I went through all the yearbooks, found some interesting things," she says. "This one on Bob is pretty interesting. It reads, 'Bob is something of a puzzle to other students.'"
Federal prosecutors became very interested in Leggett, and Leggett is convinced that Bob Angleton is guilty.
"Based on my research, I think Bob hired Roger, his brother, to have his wife killed," she says. "And that they concocted an elaborate plan. But everything went awry for a number of reasons, and, I think, stemmed from their distrust of each other."
Leggett talked to Roger for more than 50 hours – and she has it all on tape. In these tapes, Roger describes how Bob planned the murder. He details how he and Bob would make police think Roger did it alone, motivated by revenge.
The one thing they never planned on was Roger getting caught and botching things up. So Leggett says Roger then came up with a solution - he planned his own suicide to clear his brother Bob.
A week before his death, she says, Roger showed her a letter exonerating Bob and "told me that he had to do this to help his brother, so that hopefully his brother would get off the charges. And he said he really didn't know whether the judge was going to accept it."
After Roger's death, Leggett handed her tapes over to the prosecutors, but they were never introduced as evidence in Bob Angleton's trial. Prosecutors worried that jurors might hear those tapes and discount Roger's story because of other things he said that made him sound unstable.
For example, on one tape, Roger talks about being forced to do things because the CIA is pursuing him. "OK, now, I think very little of the CIA, but I don't think they were pursuing Roger Angleton," says Michael Ramsey, Bob's defense attorney.
Prosecutors thought Leggett had more information. They wanted her interviews with confidential sources.
"I don't know who they're after or what they're after, and I'm not sure at this point they do, either," Leggett says.
In July 2001, she refused to turn over the information and was thrown in jail for contempt.
After 18 months, the grand jury's term expired, and prosecutors were forced to release Leggett after she had spent 168 days behind bars.
On January 24, 2002, Bob was arrested and indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in Houston. He faces federal conspiracy and murder for hire charges. The first two counts of this indictment include a possible sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Angleton's lawyer, Mike Ramsey, is seeking to have these new charges dismissed, arguing they violate double jeopardy laws. Ramsey claims that Angleton was most recently arrested on the same charges he was acquitted of in 1998.
Angleton has been released on bond, under the condition that he wears an ankle monitor. He is permitted to leave his house for four hours each day to visit his attorney's office.
"All this just needs to go away and until this goes away, no one can have peace of mind, no one can live happily," he says. "Until it goes away. And what I mean by 'it goes away,' is the investigation, the state, the Feds, just go away."
With the death of their mother and indictment of their father, Ali and Niki Angleton haven't really had time to mourn.
"I miss her smile, and I miss her laugh," Niki says. "And I miss her being around and her caring about me. She was my mom, you know?"
A Constitutional Issue
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© MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. "You could've knocked me over with a feather," he said after the trial, struggling to hold back tears. "As prosecutors, we are the people's lawyers, the victim's lawyers. And you hope that you're going to do the best job, but it wasn't good enough."
But McClellan didn't give up hope; he wanted to see Bob Angleton tried again.
Trying the same person for the same crime more than once, called double jeopardy, is prohibited by the Constitution. That means the state can't try Bob Angleton again. But federal prosecutors can mount their own case.
With this stipulation, the hunt was on for fresh evidence. And that's where Vanessa Leggett came in. Her interest in this case had led to yet another startling, headline-making twist.
A 33-year-old aspiring true-crime writer working on a book about this murder, she knows more about the Angleton brothers than almost anyone.
"I went through all the yearbooks, found some interesting things," she says. "This one on Bob is pretty interesting. It reads, 'Bob is something of a puzzle to other students.'"
Federal prosecutors became very interested in Leggett, and Leggett is convinced that Bob Angleton is guilty.
"Based on my research, I think Bob hired Roger, his brother, to have his wife killed," she says. "And that they concocted an elaborate plan. But everything went awry for a number of reasons, and, I think, stemmed from their distrust of each other."
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The one thing they never planned on was Roger getting caught and botching things up. So Leggett says Roger then came up with a solution - he planned his own suicide to clear his brother Bob.
A week before his death, she says, Roger showed her a letter exonerating Bob and "told me that he had to do this to help his brother, so that hopefully his brother would get off the charges. And he said he really didn't know whether the judge was going to accept it."
After Roger's death, Leggett handed her tapes over to the prosecutors, but they were never introduced as evidence in Bob Angleton's trial. Prosecutors worried that jurors might hear those tapes and discount Roger's story because of other things he said that made him sound unstable.
For example, on one tape, Roger talks about being forced to do things because the CIA is pursuing him. "OK, now, I think very little of the CIA, but I don't think they were pursuing Roger Angleton," says Michael Ramsey, Bob's defense attorney.
Prosecutors thought Leggett had more information. They wanted her interviews with confidential sources.
"I don't know who they're after or what they're after, and I'm not sure at this point they do, either," Leggett says.
In July 2001, she refused to turn over the information and was thrown in jail for contempt.
After 18 months, the grand jury's term expired, and prosecutors were forced to release Leggett after she had spent 168 days behind bars.
On January 24, 2002, Bob was arrested and indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in Houston. He faces federal conspiracy and murder for hire charges. The first two counts of this indictment include a possible sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Angleton's lawyer, Mike Ramsey, is seeking to have these new charges dismissed, arguing they violate double jeopardy laws. Ramsey claims that Angleton was most recently arrested on the same charges he was acquitted of in 1998.
Angleton has been released on bond, under the condition that he wears an ankle monitor. He is permitted to leave his house for four hours each day to visit his attorney's office.
"All this just needs to go away and until this goes away, no one can have peace of mind, no one can live happily," he says. "Until it goes away. And what I mean by 'it goes away,' is the investigation, the state, the Feds, just go away."
With the death of their mother and indictment of their father, Ali and Niki Angleton haven't really had time to mourn.
"I miss her smile, and I miss her laugh," Niki says. "And I miss her being around and her caring about me. She was my mom, you know?"
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