Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - KILLER WIVES: Master of Disguise

Episode Date: August 4, 2020

Margaret Rudin's millionaire husband disappears, and then so does Margaret Rudin. Is she in danger or is she a suspect in Ron Rudin's disappearance? When Ron Rudin's burned and dismembered body is found, all become clear. Joining Nancy Grace today: Lara Yeretsian Los Angeles, Ca, Criminal defense attorney, worked extensively on many high profile criminal cases, including Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson Caryn Stark - NYC Psychologist, www.carynstark.com  Karen Smith - Los Angeles, Ca Forensics Expert, Host of "Shattered Souls" podcast.  Medical Examiner Dr. Tim Gallagher - Medical Examiner State of Florida [phone] Sierra Gillespie, Investigative Reporter, Crime Online Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Ever heard the phrase master of disguise? It's even a movie. Well, that character could take a page out of the book of Margaret Rudin, aka The Black Widow. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111.

How did the lovebirds meet? Take a listen to our old friend Bill Curtis, American Justice. Margaret Craffey met Ron Rudin at church in the summer of 1987. both were natives of illinois and grew up in close-knit families both had been married four times margaret had two children in their twenties the charming redhead made an immediate impression on Ron and his family. She was very refined, tailored, attractive. But thinking back, she was very quiet also. She did not say a lot. But I thought she was a very good match with Ron. Each of Margaret's husbands had been wealthier than the last,

especially lucrative. Clearly, when she came out to Las Vegas, she was looking for more than just companionship. She wanted that financial security. And that's probably, in large part, why she married Rudin. They married in September 1987, and Margaret moved into the house at 5113 Alpine Way, where Ron had lived with all his previous wives. Boy, that's telling me a lot right there. So, you know, going into a marriage when you've already had each of you four previous spouses, that's what you call baggage.

With me, an all-star panel to break it down and put it back together again. First of all, Laura Uretzian, L.A., California, high-profile defense attorney. Karen Stark, New York psychologist. You can find her at karenstark.com. Karen Smith joining me out of L.A., also forensics expert and host of a brand-new podcast, Shattered Souls, the medical examiner for the state of Georgia, Dr. Tim Gallagher. But first, to CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, Sierra Gillespie. Sierra, thank you for being with us. So each one of them have been married four times in the past. Yeah, Nancy, this is kind of an

interesting situation for them. They were both kind of older. She was actually 49 years old when she married Ron Rudin. And again, it was their fifth marriage. Now, Sierra Gillespie, I hate to interrupt you, but just how old are you? I am 26. Oh, okay. Well, Sierra, for many people, 49 is not quote older but that said go ahead each of them have been married four times in the past well yes i guess it's kind of older for your fifth marriage i don't know i guess to me being married five times well hold on wait a minute wait a minute you know what's so funny karen start let's follow up on what sierra gillespie crimeOnline.com just said. Karen Stark with me, New York psychologist. You know, when Elizabeth Taylor does it, it's just fine. She was married, what, how many, seven times, I think. When Martha Ray did it, it was fine. But when the rest of us do it,

there's a stigma attached to multiple marriages. There really is. Why is that? I mean, I hope I never get divorced, and I hope I never get remarried. I love my husband, but once is enough for me. I'm fine with it. Glad I did it. But why?

What is it, compulsive brides? I mean, why do you just keep getting married over and over and over? But why, what is it, compulsive brides? I mean, why do you just keep getting married over and over and over? What's going to be different with the next guy that, I mean, help me, Karen. Well, that's somebody, Nancy, it's a stigma, but it's also for a lot of people, a joke. They think they find it humorous that someone has married so many times and keeps going. Because you think think to yourself and i think this is absolutely true if they didn't get it right the first few times why did they keep trying what

makes them believe that now wait a minute karen stark when you said if they didn't get it right the first two times why keep trying wait is that because you've been married twice that i know of because a lot of people would have said if you didn't get it right the first time why keep trying? Wait, is that because you've been married twice that I know of? Absolutely, Nancy. Because a lot of people would have said, if you didn't get it right the first time, why keep trying? But you snuck the two in there. I caught that. But that must have been a Freudian slip. I always say, God bless my husband, David, because he married me and my mother, basically, who lives with us now.

He's a saint. But you know, Laura Uretzian with me, LA high profile lawyer. Laura, have you ever done divorce work? No, I haven't done any divorce work. Yeah, I'm with you. I would rather try a serial killer and stick my hand in between two people divorcing. It's like a dog fight. Agreed. It's very highly emotional from what I understand. Yes, exactly. One of my best friends who I've mentioned before is a, as I call her, right to her face, a dope lawyer. She represents drug lords, street pushers, addicts, you know, criminal intent to distribute the works.

If it's dope, she defends it. She gave up handling anybody's divorce, even for friends. Because at one point, she handled divorce between rich people. And I'm telling you, they don't like sharing money. She thought she was going to get shot. She was representing the wife in that case. I'm with you, Laura. Laura Uretsian, join me out of LA. And I've had to watch those. I mean, I've had to watch divorce cases as part of, you know,

going parallel to my criminal cases. And my goodness, they could go on forever, especially if it's between people who are very affluent and the fight just never ends. They'll fight on every little thing. Yeah, and the divorce that she was so worried about, they were rich and they were arguing over the pots and the pans. Literally, fighting, running up, jacking up lawyers' fees over pots and pans. Anyway, that's an insight into a divorce, especially with rich people. And now you've got two people entering a marriage, and each one of them have had four previous. And C.A. Gillespie, Jackie here in the studio, wants me to correct a fact about it. Liz was not married to eight different men. She was married to seven

different men. She married Richard Burton twice. Is that okay? Yes. So let's clear up Liz Taylor's reputation right here and right now. Now back to the, as I call her, the master of disguise, Margaret Root, and you're going to find out why. Take a listen to how this whole thing got started. Here's our friend Bill Curtis. I love Bill Curtis. Go ahead. Ron and Margaret's marriage seemed to start well, but just a year after their wedding, Ron Rudin began an affair with another woman.

Margaret was enraged. In 1988, she overheard her husband talking to his mistress on the phone. Police would later find an entry in Margaret's diary about the violent argument that followed. Margaret's version of that was that she pulled a gun and that Ron grabbed it and then the gun went off. She didn't say who pulled the trigger. She didn't say if it was aimed at Ron.

She didn't say if it went off when Ron tried to grab it from her. She was very vague about that. After a brief separation, the two reconciled, but marital tensions continued, especially about money. Rudin was an extremely private man, sharing few details of his business with anyone, including his wife. Margaret found her husband's penchant for secrecy maddening and was determined to keep tabs on his business.

So here it goes with wealthy individuals keeping their money a secret, sitting on all their gold like a dragon does in its cave. That kind of secrecy in a relationship does not bode well. We're talking about a woman named Margaret Rudin, as I call her Black Widow or Master of Disguise, and you're about to find out why. She marries Robert Rudin, who is very, very wealthy in L.A. You know, to Sierra Gillespie, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, do we know where rudin got all his money yeah so ronald rudin actually was a millionaire and he made most of his money through real estate so in the las vegas area that's basically where he came to become this millionaire and as we heard earlier he lived with all of his wives including mar Margaret Rudin, in the Las Vegas area.

And they were pretty well-to-do. I mean, they had a very nice house. He worked in real estate. So things looked well for them. Even though they had each been married four times, they met at the First Church of Religious Science in Las Vegas. Jackie, can you look that up? What is the first church of religious science? You know, to you, Karen Smith, joining me out of LA, it almost sounds like a Christian scientist. The ones that believe kind of mind over matter. They don't like doctors

or medicine. They think you can heal yourself, but they are, in fact, Christians. What is that? It's the first church of religious science in Las Vegas. So they marry fortuitously on September 11, many years before the actual September 11. And their marriage seems to be going along just fine until he becomes secretive about the money. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Their marriage seems to be going along just fine until he becomes secretive about the money so karen start one secretive about money if you're secretive about that um that bodes ill i i remember

when i first start when i first knew david i didn't have two pennies to rub together as a prosecutor and was working at some points three night jobs to make a car and a house payment. So there were not a lot of money secrets except all my pile of bills I had to pay. But then to add to that blatantly, now this is her side, talking to a mistress right there? I mean, for Pete's sake, I'm in the room. What does that mean? I can hear you talking to your girlfriend. Are you surprised she pulled a gun on him? Well, I don't know. That sounds pretty extreme, but I could understand that she would be completely upset. And I'm sure that people would wonder at that point, not that she would be completely upset and I'm sure that people would wonder at that point not that she pulled it why would she pull a gun instead of just saying I've had it and I'm going

to move on to my fifth marriage or another that would have been the sixth marriage deciding that she's going to take an extreme measure like that. Well, everything comes to a screeching halt. Take a listen to Love or Money's Peter Thomas. On a Monday morning, Ron Rudin didn't show up for work as he had always done in the 20 years he was in business. As soon as he wasn't there to open the business, a half hour before the office opened, his employees

knew something was wrong. And the fact that he lived 30 feet from the office also told him that there was something wrong. Ron was not one to disappear, surely, and he was certainly not one to leave his business unattended. Ron's fifth wife, Margaret, called police to report him missing. She said he didn't come home the night before After that night Ron Rudin just disappeared off the face of the earth

There were no ATM transactions, no account activity He wasn't seen anywhere, his cell phone wasn't being used So he goes missing, Margaret is the one that calls police. But from what we know, he could have gone anywhere between all of his money, all of his business dealings, all of his affairs. Take a listen to Vegas KTNV, Channel 13, Joe Bartels. Ron always kept Margaret at arm's length and never revealed really how much money he had. It was a secret that Margaret stopped at nothing to learn Margaret was even suspected of wiretapping Ron's phones at his office so that she could hear who he was speaking with and ultimately she found out that he was having an affair with

someone and she heard it on the wiretap that she illegally created despite learning about the affair more. So with the help of opened up an antique stoi Ron's real estate office, away from their home and business venture from any looking in. Ron had furni

me over $100,000 to open that antique store. She didn't know no more about antiques than I do. Margaret wanted Ron's money, and she knew from her previous four marriages that if she gets a divorce, she's not going to get very much of that money. So she stayed with him for a while, but it just got worse and worse and worse. You know, you're hearing about a wiretap that Margaret had put on her husband's phones because she thought he was cheating, and yes, she found out he was cheating, all right. When your marriage is at that point, to you, Karen Stark, when you're having to wiretap your husband.

I mean, one time I wanted to read my husband's emails. My eyes started bleeding. They were so boring. I've never done that again. Ever. Every word was another horribly intricate business dealing. Oh, it was terrible. I've never done it again.

Yes, God bless him. But when you're to a point where you've got to tap your spouse's phone, you might as well just go ahead and get a divorce or go to therapy, one or the other. Because to me, that's irretrievably broken when either you distrust them so much or they've given you cause to distrust them so much. There had to be a reason for that. She was right. You know, that leads me to another question. At the point where you think, wow, is he having an affair? If you're thinking that, something has led you to think that. Either an unexplained disappearance or just a bizarre set of behavior or something out of the...

You know what always gives it away? When the husband starts working out and going on diets or getting a sports car out of the blue, I'm no shrink. That's you, Karen Stark. But what does that mean? Well, that means he's taking a new interest in how he looks. And unless something drastic has happened elsewhere in his life, you have to start thinking, why is he suddenly so interested in working out or dressing well but there are other clues and things to look for nancy i mean if all of a sudden you're with somebody who never

gets you gifts and he starts to get you gifts while he's working out you have to trust your instincts which is what i say to my patients you You have to pay attention. If you have an instinct that tells you that something is going on, something is probably going on unless you're terribly paranoid and you always think something is going on. Okay, Jackie's gotten the answer to the church. It's not Christian scientists. It looks like it's just non-denominational. You know, to you, Karen Smith, joining me, L.A., California forensics expert, host of Shattered Souls podcast. Karen, how difficult, well, if anybody's ever been to a radio shack or a spy store or even look on Amazon, how hard is it to tap somebody's phone or, you know, record their conversations?

It's not. It's not at all. I mean, we're talking, you know, 20 years it's not it's not at all i mean we're talking you know 20 years ago at least at this point so you know you can go and buy go to a spy shop and buy a rudimentary phone tap you just i think the hardest part would be getting access to that phone to do it rather than actually putting the device on the phone to record. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about Margaret Rudin, also known as the Master of Disguise or the Black Widow. To Dr. Tim Gallagher, a medical examiner, state of Florida, so often people go missing. We later find out they're dead, and their bodies are never found.

Sometimes they're found 20, 30 years later. It's not that hard to dispose of a body if you put your mind to it, Dr. Gallagher. What's the most bizarre hidden body case you've ever worked with? The fact this guy goes missing and they can't find him at first. How common is that also in your practice, Dr. Gallagher, as the medical examiner for Florida, that people go to the length of hiding the body? Well, we've had many occasions of those. You know, we found bodies in 55-gallon drums of acid, you know, that were buried on people's property. We've found bodies encased in concrete buried on people's property as well. You know, sometimes, you. Sometimes we find bodies that are missing that are accidentally missing. For instance, we have a lot of canals here that people drive off the road into a canal

and their bodies are underwater for years and years before they're recovered. So we've had a lot of interesting cases. We've had people who showed up in suitcases that were in the Everglades. Just whatever you can think of and beyond is what we have here in Florida. And when Ron does not show up for work, his employees immediately know something's horribly wrong. Laura Uretzian joining me from L.A., there is a type of evidence called routine evidence and that doesn't mean it's just like it's not boring routine evidence it's evidence of your routine and so many times Laura Uretzian I don't know if this has happened in your defense practice as it has in my prosecution practice that some many people are like clock. Like if I came to this studio

and Jackie was not sitting right there and Brett was not sitting right there, I would call 911 because they've never, ever missed a day of work, ever. And, you know, there's certain habits, routines people go through by choice. And if they break that routine, colleagues, co-workers, family know something is wrong, Laura. And that can really start your criminal timeline right there. Right. Which is exactly what happened here. I mean, it was his habit, obviously, we call it the habit type evidence to be at his office in the mornings. And hence the reason his employees were the first to notice that something was not right, that something had happened and reported it from what I understand to the authorities. And it's only after that, that his wife Margaret reports him missing.

That's a very important distinction, because earlier I said she called and reported him missing. But you're absolutely right yet again, Laura Uretzian, that the co-workers first noticed he was out of place. Guys, talk about a premonition. Take a listen to our friend Joe Bartels at KTNV. He was literally sleeping with another woman, and she found out about it. Then just weeks before Christmas, Ron placed a phone call with his good friend John.

He says, I found a piece of paper in the house. Margaret's diagramming out how she's going to split up all my money, the estate, with her relatives and friends. And he says, I'm really getting nervous. I told him, you better watch your back. That warning came as Ron changed his will, a move that many saw as a finger point right at his wife if something happened to him. It got to the point that he started worrying that his life could be in danger,

that maybe Margaret might elevate this to the next step. So he changed his will. He put a little writer in his will that said, if I die by violent means, car crash, accident, shooting, investigate the person who stands to inherit my money. Wow. So he comes home and he finds a piece of paper where Margaret Rudin is detailing how she's going to split up his estate after his death with her friends and family. I would have left right then. I wouldn't have even bothered to pack. Just go. Goodbye. Leave. But he didn't. And then he doesn't report to work one day. You know, Dr. Tim Gallagher, medical examiner, state of Florida, how many times have you investigated

a case? Of course, you're performing the autopsy. But medical examiners look at extrinsic evidence as well as just the body. Margaret Rudin basically makes a flowchart, a diagram of how she's going to split up her husband's money after his death. And he finds it. How often have you seen that, Dr. Gallagher? Oh, I'm currently working on a case now where there's this notebook after notebook of nefarious notes that someone had taken against another person. So these tend to be pretty common, especially in the probably 40 to 60-year-old age range. And I'm not going to say if that's a young person or otherwise, but we tend to look at that, and when we come across cases in that age range, that's one of the things that we try

to keep an eye out for on the scene. You know, I had, of course, it was rich people again, and the husband wiretiped the wife, found out she had a boyfriend, and I don't really blame her because he's horrible, the husband. But then he took all of his suits to the dry cleaners before he burned the house down with her in it. He took all of his family photos of his family and stored them at his home. He even called the weather station to find out if it was going to rain the day of the fire, he said. So, I mean, leaving a trail a mile wide. And we just saw to Lori Retsien in the Jennifer Dulos, the Connecticut mother of five who goes missing, her body's not been found, where her husband, Fotis Dulos, and his girlfriend had written an alibi script, basically, about a lot of it made made up where they were at the time Jennifer goes missing.

And you're out in California, Laura, I hope you didn't work on the Robert Blake case because there was a to-do list in that. Go get lie. Go get a tarp. Get my guns. Of course, they came up with excuses about this to-do list. But have you ever seen that where they actually, the perps actually leave written evidence of their crime, like here, dividing up his money before he's even been murdered? I mean, who says a criminal mind is always the brightest? People do all sorts of things. Sometimes they're planning, sometimes they're not planning it in the beginning and they leave notes of the hatred. I mean, we've seen it all. And does

that surprise me? Not at all. Again, who says that the criminal line is really the brightest? People get caught because they do stupid things, because they make mistakes and they leave a trail behind. And you've got situations like this that we have in this case. But the interesting part in this case is though, not just the note, as far as Margaret's concerned, one of the things that really stands out for me is, you know, this is someone who when things go wrong in a marriage, she gets a divorce. So I could see a defense lawyer arguing that, you know, what she would have done is what she's done before, previously, like what we argued, her habits. And hers was to divorce these husbands. And one argument I could have raised as a defense attorney is the natural, the habitual

thing, the routine thing that this woman would have done was to divorce this husband. And even this wiretap thing, that to me shows more not someone who's planning to kill her husband, but someone who's trying to kill her husband, but someone who's trying to find out what the financial status, how much money does he have? Where are his assets? Where is he hiding these assets for divorce purposes? And who is he sleeping with? That too. Yeah. And who's the girlfriend? I'd like to know that first and foremost. So to you, Sierra Gillespie, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, goes without saying, Robert Rudin is dead. How did they find his body? Where was he?

So, Nancy, he went missing on December 18th, 1994. And earlier you had talked about how it could be like 20 years, 30 years until they find a body. But in this case, it really wasn't that long. They didn't find it until about a month later in january of 1995 he was found near lake mojave so his remains were found i guess i should say he had been shot multiple times he'd also been decapitated but he was burned so they literally found charred remains of his. Whoa. Okay. I almost wish I hadn't asked you. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about a black widow, Margaret Rudin, also known as the Master of Disguise. Take a listen to our

friend Peter Thomas on For Love or Money. A week later, police found Ron's car in the parking lot of a gentleman's club just off the Vegas Strip. The man who found the car, the night manager at the Strip Club, was a former disgraced police officer in Las Vegas who once had mobbed ties. This immediately raised a lot of eyebrows and made people wonder, is there an organized crime connection to this disappearance? Inside the car were traces of blood too badly degraded for DNA testing. Forensic experts also found mud. Well, the detectives had developed a theory around Rudin's body had been transported in the car or in a trunk in the car. But a forensic analysis could not determine where the mud came from. Well, also, Rudin's skull was found. A hiker

finds a human skull in a ravine 20 yards away from the charred remains. Additional bones found and a gold bracelet found with the name Ron engraved on it. Still no ID on the skull until dental records confirm the skull is Ron Rudin. He had been shot in the head four times with a.22 caliber pistol. So to you, Dr. Tim Gallagher, how do you figure that out? What, with an x-ray or do you have to open the skull? Well, if the skull is found after that amount of times, I don't think that there'd be any flesh left on it. But if there is, you know, we do have very good x-ray equipment. And then we can determine by the size of the wound and by the features of the wound if they are entrance wounds, exit wounds, and approximately what caliber they are. A.22 caliber projectile is a very small projectile.

It makes a very small hole, and it doesn't really damage the bone a lot. So if the skull was shot by a higher caliber firearm, it would be shattered. If it was shot by a small one, the holes would be very, very preserved and very well able to be analyzed. So the body has been found, but how the hay did it get there? It screams mob murder. Take a listen to what police find when they go to the Rudin home. Listen to Peter Thomas. Although police found nothing suspicious when they searched Rudin's home, a local handyman told police he saw plenty that was suspicious when he worked there just days after Ron disappeared. He worked for Margaret, helped her decorate, and he helped her clean up.

She told him, get rid of this mattress, get rid of the bed, and tear out the carpet. He found this dry, gooey, crunchy material in the carpeting that he was sure was blood. The handyman helped Margaret convert the master bedroom into an office. Although the room had been redecorated, investigators decided to test the walls and ceiling for blood

that may have been removed. Use the luminol. It looked like the Milky Way. Lit up like a Christmas tree. They were certain this was the death scene. What is luminol, Karen Smith, and how does it work, and how do they find blood that lit up the scene like the Milky Way? Lit up like a Christmas tree. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen it, and I've heard that. Luminol is a chemiluminescent reagent, and what it does is it reacts with the iron in blood, and it turns a bright blue color. It gives off light. And when you say it lit up like a Christmas tree or looked

like the Milky Way, that is the primary scene of a murder. There's no way around it. Blood will break up into droplets that's commensurate in size with the amount of force applied to them. So when you have blood spatter all over a wall like that in small, teeny little pinpoint droplets, that's indicative of a gunshot. You have a mattress that's been disposed of. You have carpet that's been disposed of. That's the murder scene, Nancy. Simple as that. As I always say, I do not believe in conspiracies very often because people can't keep their trap shut. Here we go. Margaret Rudin trusts the handyman to clean up the crime scene and not talk. But then, while investigators, through the use of luminol, do find blood, the one thing they can't find is Margaret Rudin.

Take a listen to our buddy Bill Curtis at American Justice. Margaret Rudin was on the lam. Charged with murdering her husband, Ron Rudin, the 53-year-old Las Vegas grandmother had skipped town just ahead on the lam. Charged with murdering her husband, Ron Rudin, the 53-year-old Las Vegas grandmother had skipped town just ahead of the police. For three decades, she had been supported by a string of husbands. Now, for the first time, she would have to rely on her own wits and her own money to survive. Going on the lam was one of the best things that ever happened to her she felt finally empowered she was on her own she didn't have to rely on a

man she felt good and she would prove to be adept at avoiding capture it didn't really surprise me that she ran off what surprised me later was that she was so good at it. Margaret went to some elaborate means to obtain false identity. And she had social security cards, passports, driver's licenses, all kinds of fake ID with her. Wow. You know, the ability to go on the run and outsmart the cops for that long, fake IDs. You notice at the beginning the family loved her, thought she was a stunning redhead. When I knew her, she was blonde. And that changed many, many times.

But then, again, it all comes to a screeching halt. Here's Bill Curtis. A woman in Phoenix, Arizona, contacted authorities there. She had seen a segment of the television show America's Most Wanted that featured a sought-after murderess nicknamed the Black Widow of Vegas. She told Phoenix police that an acquaintance of hers named Ann Boatwright looked like the woman in the segment. The police went to question Ann Boatwright. She was interviewed by the same officer twice, and both times she was able to convince him that she was not this Margaret Rudin.

He talked to her, and he just couldn't believe that this soft-spoken, sweet, grandmotherly person could be a cold-blooded killer. They felt that there was something wrong, but they just couldn't get the positive identification on her, and they had to let her go. Only later in Ann Boatwright's room at the YMCA did police find a keychain with a Ron Rudin Realty logo. So let me understand this.

To you, Sierra Gillespie, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. A woman in Phoenix, Arizona calls police saying her friend, Ann Boatwright, looks just like a woman just featured on Americans Most Wanted. So cops go there not once, but twice, many times. And on two occasions, they speak to Anne Boatwright, and she convinces them she's not Margaret Rudin, and they leave. Yeah, Nancy, that's exactly what happened. It kind of sounds like a movie script or something, right? I mean, this woman is very, I guess, it's almost like she's a spy. She changed her hair.

She was later known as dying it or wearing wigs. But yes, a woman saw her on America's Most Wanted in Arizona. She spoke to the police and actually convinced them, coerced them possibly, and said, that's not me. And they did have to let her go. It's amazing to me. Now, listen to this. Bill Curtis. In October 1999,

authorities learned that Margaret had sent several packages from a P.O. box in Revere, Massachusetts to a friend in Utah. The contents included Christmas presents for Rudin's three grandchildren. Police in Revere staked out the apartment where the P.O. box holder lived and used some creative tactics to get inside to look for Margaret. The whole capture was the stuff of movies. A Domino's pizza had been delivered to that apartment where she was living. The Domino's guy pulled away. The cops came and said, hey, can we borrow a pizza box in your outfit?

They did knock on the door. The door is opened by the man who was living there with Margaret at the time, and the cops come racing in with guns drawn and mag light flashlights, and the whole works, and Margaret is found cowering in a bathroom by the toilet. Questioned as to whether she knew why she was being taken into custody, Rudin replied, it's about that Vegas thing. Wow. Okay.

You're wondering why police had to go to such extremes dressing up like pizza delivery in order to get Margaret Rudin? Well, take a listen to Dave Mack with CrimeOnline.com. Three weeks before her indictment, Margaret Rudin disappeared, ultimately landing in Revere, Massachusetts by way of Mexico. For more than six months, she had been roommates with a retired firefighter Margaret Rudin disappeared, ultimately landing in Revere, Massachusetts by way of Mexico. For more than six months, she had been roommates with a retired firefighter in an apartment in a triple-decker house. That man was Joseph Lundergan. Margaret Rudin was working to support herself by looking for work as an apprentice in a cobbler's shop. The two reportedly met while living in the

same Guadalajara apartment complex and socializing in the same circle of American retirees. Lundergan said that Rudin told him she was on the run from a shadowy terrorist named Yehuda. Yehuda, she said, was a former Israeli secret agent working for trustees of her murdered husband's estate. She told him they wanted her dead to gain control of her late husband's millions. Okay, so you see her weaving a little truth into her fantastical lie. She mentions a murdered husband. Well, you got that part right. Margaret Rudin convicted after years on the lam. To this day, she insists she's innocent.

Margaret Rudin, killer wife. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend.