Black Widow Betty Neumar

BLACK WIDOW BETTY

ERICA NEWTON

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BETTY NEUMAR

LYDA TRUEBLOOD

GENENE JONES

SHE KILLED DAD

TRACEY GRISSOM

DEATH ROW GRANNY

JOANNA DENNEHY

CHRISTINA WALTERS

MARTHA WISE

The Black Widow Betty Neumar

ERICA NEWTON

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There’s usually a certain characteristic or gender we think of when we hear the word serial-killer, but in the case of Betty Neumar, everything changed. Most times, serial-killers are either caught or found dead before they reach senior status, but in this case, the opposite is true.

Investigators spoke of Betty’s world becoming a nation-wide web of coincidences. Because of this figurative web, the media dubbed her the Black Widow. In all her 79 years on this planet, she had been married five times, and each of her relationships had ended with an unexpected death of her husband.

To the outside world, family members who are unconvinced of Betty’s involvement in the murders and deaths of her husbands call her a Bee – a friendly woman who operated beauty shops, attended church, and raised money for charity. Other family members saw a different side of Betty; an uglier side of fist fights at family gatherings, use of vulgar language and demeaning relatives, her two-faced personality where she would put on a show for the public eye, and her notoriety for being an exceedingly greedy woman whose only ambitions in live revolved around having and spending as much money as possible.

On June 30, 2011, the Black Widow, died while under police custody. She was currently at a local hospital for treating her cancer which ultimately took her life. Unfortunately for the relatives of the murdered men and police investigators who have been following Betty closely in search of any slip-up or record of her shady past, her passing away meant that she was exonerated of any and all charges made against her. The public was understandingly disappointed with the final verdict but nothing could be done to overturn the law.

The world will forever know Betty Nebular as the Black Widow who did away with at least four of her husbands. Betty Neumar, who would later be called the Black Widow by the media, was born in 1931. She was raised in an underprivileged home in a coal mining community. Terry Sanders, Betty’s son-in-law who has been married to one of her daughters for more than 35 years, told reporters that Betty was a tough country girl and fought through a lot of pain.

In November 1950, then-18-year-old Betty Johnson, a daughter of a coal miner in Ironton, Ohio, married a local boy named Clarence Malone. The marriage didn’t last long due to her filing a report to Ironton police about Clarence physically abusing her. Although they produced a son together, Betty and Clarence separated from each other. They virtually had no contact with each other from after their divorce up until his unexpected death nearly 20 years later.

In 1953, Betty married James F. Flynn, a New Yorker notorious for his bad drinking habits. Their marriage didn’t last long when in 1955 he was found dead. Betty told contradicting stories of her second husband’s death over the following years. She reported that he died in a car accident, was killed on a pier in New York City, and died from hypothermia in the snow. To date, the exact cause and circumstances behind James’ death remain unknown.

While working in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964, Betty married a 29-year-old man from the Navy named Richard Sills. Only three years later, the police had discovered the dead body of Richard with an apparent gunshot wound in the couple’s bedroom of their mobile home in Big Coppitt Key, Florida. Betty had told police investigators that her late husband had pulled out a .22-caliber pistol in the heat of an argument.

For some reason during their scuffle, he turned the gun onto himself and pulled the trigger, shooting himself in the heart. Without an autopsy to confirm or deny this claim, his death was ruled a suicide by the police. Richard’s death was officially ruled a suicide by law authorities, but in 2008, after her arrest, medical examiner reports emerged that showed Richard had been shot twice.

Finding two gunshot wounds in a suicide victim was odd but unfortunately could not be used as a lead to convicting Betty. Monroe County officials denied requests to exhume Sills’ body or take investigative action in light of this new piece of evidence because the statute of limitations had already expired.

Investigators from the Naval Criminal Investigative Services found the case of Sills’ highly skeptical and had plans to investigate as soon as Betty’s case in North Carolina was completed. However, as of 2011, the NCI spokesperson Ed Buice who mentioned previously of their intentions to investigate had told the public that after Betty’s death the NCIS would no longer pursue her case.

One of Richard’s sons from a previous marriage, Michael Sills, expressed his massive disappointment with the NCIS’s decision to halt investigations, but he became enraged at officials from Florida for their failure in providing closure on his father’s death. He had never gotten the chance to know his father since his parents had divorced only when he was a toddler and his mother gained custody rights.

As far as I’m concerned, she did it, Michael said in an interview. There’s too many inconsistent things about it. He further went on to state that his late father’s military files paint him as a man who was not depressed nor did he have suicidal tendencies.

Betty would then go on to marry a man in the army named Harold Gentry in January 1968. Only two years into her marriage with Harold, the body of Clarence – Betty’s first husband who separated from her in 1952 – was found outside of his automobile repair shop in a town near Cleveland, Ohio with a bullet hole in his head. Police investigators never identified the gunman who had shot him execution-style in the back of his head.

One of Clarence’s brothers told newspaper reporters that he did not suspect Betty as being involved in their late brother’s murder case since they had been separated for more than 15 years and she had remarried twice since then. In fact, there were rumors that Clarence had gotten into trouble with a local motorcycle gang who could have potentially murdered him.

In 1985, Betty’s eldest son, Gary Flynn who was adopted by Betty’s second husband and took his last name, was also found shot to death in his apartment complex in the Cleveland area. Betty was named the beneficiary of Gary’s life insurance policy so she received a check worth $10,000 after his death. Once again, the police were stumped by the case and never officially identified who his killer was.

Some of James’ family members were highly skeptical that he would commit suicide, despite there being a suicide note. Their suspicions grew when they learned that Betty would be receiving a $10,000 life insurance check following James’ death. Jeff Carstensen, a stepson of Gary, told investigators about memories of their ugly holiday gatherings fueled by excessive alcohol consumption. Gary Flynn may have had his own demons, Jeff said in an interviewer. At the time of Richard’s (the third husband) death, Gary and Peggy (one of Betty’s daughters from a previous marriage) were in the next room when Richard was fatally shot.

Jeff spoke of his stepfather’s paranoia about banks when he was interrogated by police investigators. Gary considered himself a survivalist that would sometimes go on the occasional drug and alcohol binges after speaking with Betty on the phone. Jeff told detectives that he and his mother, Cecelia Flynn, raced to Gary’s home from Michigan to get there before Betty. They suspected that Gary had a large amount of money hidden in a room he rented at the Perry Township duplex.

He told detectives that he and his mother had discovered upwards of $16,000 in cash hidden below Gary’s bed. They also reported finding several guns and ammunition. Betty would arrive later to collect the ashes of her late son the day after his death.

Two years later, Jeff, a newly-divorced man, moved to Georgia to live with Betty. Not long after, he returned to Michigan after he discovered that Betty had gotten him fired from two jobs. Betty also played a role in ruining the relationship between him and his girlfriend at the time.

Betty made the relationship between Jeff and herself even worse when she offered to take out a $100,000 life insurance policy on him and name herself as the beneficiary. I got out of there as soon as I could, Jeff said. She told me that people of our stature have insurance policies on each other. That way, if something happens to you, you take care of me, and if something happens to me, I take care of you. It was all too suspicious. So I got out of there any way I could. He would later learn that anybody who was even remotely involved in Betty’s life would have something bad happen to them.

In July 1968, Betty and Harold, who was now retired from the army, resided in Norwood, North Carolina. After 18 years of having a less-than-harmonious marriage, a reported six bullets were fired into the body of Harold. Betty told investigators that she had been out of town when her fourth husband was riddled with bullets in his own home. Again, the police were unable to name a suspect in this shooting. However, due to Harold’s sudden death, Betty again received a life insurance policy check worth $50,000.

Over the years [during their marriage], Al Gentry – brother to Harold – told reporters, She told our family that she had been a nurse and that her first husband died of cancer. She also said she was a beautician and lived in Ohio, and had children from a previous marriage. During their time together, Harold worked long hours as a delivery truck driver for the Royal Chemical Co., while Betty worked in a drug store, drove school buses, and even waited tables in local restaurants.

When the police reopened the case after listening to Al’s pleas and suspicion of Betty, there were several delays. The first delay which virtually let Betty free from trial occurred in 1986 when the files with the police investigators were given to prosecutors. Betty’s trial was set and supposed to start on February 26 of that year, but it was ultimately postponed in order to give the newly elected prosecutor more time to prepare his case. Al, frustrated with the postpone, told reporters, We still haven’t answered the question: Who actually killed my brother?

From the beginning of the initial investigation, law enforcement officials told the public that they had trouble in piecing together the details of Betty’s life due to inconsistencies and alterations made in her retellings. However, through winding interviews, documents, and court records, a general outline of her history could be deduced based on the existing records of her life in North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, and Georgia (the states where she officially wedded her five husbands).

In 1991, the then-60-year-old widow/serial killer married her fifth and last husband named John Neumar. After nine years of marriage, the couple managed to owe a collective $200,000 on 43 different credit cards and soon filed for bankruptcy. In October 2007, John died at age 79. His official ruling of death was listed