Cops Eye Widow With 5 Dead Husbands

N.C. Woman, 76, Charged With Seeking Hit On Hubby No. 4

(AP)  Police may have ignored a warning years ago that a woman with five dead spouses was trying to hire a hit man to kill one of the men, investigators in North Carolina said Monday.

Authorities charged 76-year-old Betty Neumar last month with one count of solicitation of murder in the July 1986 death of Harold Gentry. Gentry's brother had begged investigators for two decades to take another look at the case.

Stanly County sheriff's investigators believe Neumar tried to hire several people to kill Gentry. Lead detective Scott Williams said Monday his office is looking into the possibility that one of those would-be hit men went to authorities before Gentry's death, but no one took him seriously.

"That's another aspect we're looking into," Williams said, declining to elaborate.

Neumar has been married five times since the 1950s, but each union ended with the death of her husband. Investigators are urging police elsewhere to look into those deaths.

Williams said that detectives believe Harold Gentry was Neumar's fourth husband. She and the third husband, Richard Sills, were living in the Florida Keys when he was shot to death in 1965, Williams said. At the time, police said his death was the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But Williams said Neumar was the only person in the room when he died.

"They were having a terrible argument and apparently a gunshot went off, and he's dead," Williams said.

After his death, Neumar met Gentry in Florida. The couple married in the late 1970s in Georgia after he retired from the Army.

Gentry was found shot to death inside the couple's home on July 14, 1986. Three years later, she married her fifth husband, John Neumar. He died in October, and authorities in Augusta, Georgia, are investigating whether his death - officially listed as sepsis, bacterial infection of the body's blood and tissues - might have another cause, such as arsenic poisoning.

Williams said he's still working to uncover as much as he can about Neumar's first two husbands, both of whom he said were from Ohio. One died in 1952, the other in 1955. He's also trying to piece together her life between her second husband's death and when she married Sills.

"Keep in mind that it appears that after each husband, she moved on. So she could just tell any story she wanted to tell," Williams said. "That's just what happened. She would come up with some pretty wild stories that she told about herself or what happened to her husbands."

Neumar is being held on $500,000 bond in the Stanly County jail. A clerk in the county clerk of courts office said Monday that Neumar does not yet have an attorney. Her daughter with Harold Gentry has declined to comment.

[ianlou]

What a Bittch!!!
Amazing what men will put up with to avoid the washing machine and vaccuum cleaner.

[looted]

It''s the wild wild west.. Let''s keep it that way. Where''s the rope. Someone should have at one point given her a gift certificate for one free vist to Dr. Kivorkian. My family was looted by a Black Widow from Tehacaphi, Ca. She took everything my father had worked for all of his life in 3 1/2 yrs. So, beware of Grandma, she was actually my late mothers 1st cousin.

[reedtaz73]

Alot of gunshot victims on granny''s plate...quick, fire up the electric chair before she passes away.

[ethomas1965-2009]

Why is it that 90% of the article on here a battle between Dems and Republicans? There are many articels that I see on this site and quite a few comments are libs slamming President Bush or conservatives slamming democrats. Many of the newsworthy articles here don''t need that kind of rhetoric.

[faith_in_w]

ethomas1965, cops, women. It doesnt take an Einstein to figure out the cops could care less about solving the crime than trying to get laid.

[missybelle-2009]

Gee sounds to me like she had to be a creative thinker....something you libs do all the time like scaring the elderly into voting Dem because the mean evil Republicans are going to shut down their Social Security money. I wish everyone would learn to watch C-SPAN and see how everyone votes and who abstains from votes. Besides, I think the political system as it stands needs to be pruned and get the parties rebuilt or replaced. Let''''s face it... How many honest politicians are there? Ans: NONE!!!!


Posted by ethomas1965 at 09:17 AM : Jun 17, 2008

Gee, sounds like you don''t have a lot to do other than gush out political nonsense on this article that really doesn''t have much to do with what you''re talking about...

[missybelle-2009]

And you can''''t be too careful, with all these terrorists trying to get into our country and create a base of operations, right here in Charlotte, NC!


Posted by alphaa10 at 02:40 AM : Jun 17, 2008

Why are you being so hateful about NC? This stuff goes on everywhere, just because it happened here doesn''t mean that law enforcement is any worse in this state than anywhere else.

[rational_1]

You think you''re marrying June Cleaver, and you end up with Eileen Wuornos. Personally if I woke up in the morning and saw her next to me in bed, arsenic might not seem like such a bad thing

[ethomas1965-2009]

"Keep in mind that it appears that after each husband, she moved on. So she could just tell any story she wanted to tell," Williams said. "That''s just what happened. She would come up with some pretty wild stories that she told about herself or what happened to her husbands." Quote from article.
------------
Gee sounds to me like she had to be a creative thinker....something you libs do all the time like scaring the elderly into voting Dem because the mean evil Republicans are going to shut down their Social Security money. I wish everyone would learn to watch C-SPAN and see how everyone votes and who abstains from votes. Besides, I think the political system as it stands needs to be pruned and get the parties rebuilt or replaced. Let''s face it... How many honest politicians are there? Ans: NONE!!!!

[sassalin]

alphaa10,

Read the article before you comment. NOT all the deaths were in NC.

I was only born an raised in NC but as far as I can remember Duke University is in Durham not Charlotte.

READ before you comment!!

[oneworldusa]

This might potentially top Drew Peterson for worst spouse of the year. He''s ONLY killed 2 wives, right? I''m out of the loop on that these days.

[alphaa10-2009]

We might wonder what occupied the busy professional lives of Charlotte state and local investigators, many of them immersed with false rape charges against Duke Lacrosse players.

Perhaps simply too busy to notice the same woman reappearing with a new dead husband in tow. And no fewer than five times. "Sheriff, do ya think...?"

Bizaare law enforcement oversight, at the least. The most logical explanation is the sheriff was engrossed in reruns of Deputy Barney Fife and Sheriff Andy Taylor. On the job training, you know.

And you can''t be too careful, with all these terrorists trying to get into our country and create a base of operations, right here in Charlotte, NC!

[gaye5]

The poor woman hadnt heard of polygamy eh, she should have done it in reverse.. With nothing being done about polygamists in America it makes it sort of legal so why didnt she do that, imagine 5 retirement lots of money coming in eh..

[smurfcrusher]

"Hey baby! You must''ve been -something- before electricity!"

- Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack

[elkc]

At least it appears she was consistent in her marriages. If she is guilty what was her boiling point? Shoes on the coffee table? If she is innocent perhaps its that men are just dieing to marry her.

[blitzder]

She and *** Cheney would make a hell of a couple. They are both monsters.

[aztecdakota]

Some people just have bad habits, that are hard to quit. go figure.

[usmcvn2]

She looks like W''s mother. See Barbra Bush on one dollar bill.

[sharncedar]

Perhaps California should make this legal as well.

[ajaxtheleast]

Release, clone and return Betty to the
streets.

With her proven ability to eliminate
citizens who make bad choices to improve
their lives it would raise voter I,Q,

A win win situation:

Democrats would always govern.

And Republicans could spend the rest of
their lives 23/7 in the public restrooms
of their choice.