#7 - Maria “Lulu” Sosa
Texas man Ramon Sosa first met his wife, a Mexican-born personal trainer named Maria, at a
nightclub in Houston in 2007. When they eventually got married in April of 2010, Maria, who had
reportedly been in the United States on a short term visa, was able to gain full citizenship, and
they subsequently went into business together when Ramon opened up a boxing gym. Then, a few years
later, in 2015, Maria indicated to Ramon that she wanted a divorce, citing the couple’s financial
troubles as the reason behind her decision to end their relationship. Shortly thereafter, a friend
of Ramon’s revealed that he’d been approached by Maria, who reportedly offered him $2,000 to kill
her husband. Shocked and confused, Ramon contacted the police and began collaborating with federal
agents on a sting operation aimed at gathering enough evidence to arrest Maria in connection
to her murder-for-hire plot. Maria met with an individual whom she believed to be a hitman,
but was actually an undercover police officer. To deceive the woman into believing her husband’s
assassination had been completed, investigators took a picture of an artificially bloodied Ramon
laying in a shallow grave and sent it to her. She was eventually arrested on a charge of
solicitation of murder. It was later detailed how Maria had concocted the plan to murder her husband
in order to inherit the fortune tied to his boxing gym. She ultimately pleaded
guilty to her charges and was sentenced to serve 20 years in a Texas state prison.
#6 - Tracey Grissom
On May the 15th of 2012, Alabama woman Tracey Grissom went to the Binion Creek boat landing
at Lake Tuscaloosa and fired 6 gunshots at her ex-husband in front of witnesses.
Subsequent reports detailed how 2 of the bullets struck the victim in the back of his arm,
while 2 others entered his back, killing him instantly. Prior to his death, the 28-year-old man
reportedly faced criminal charges in connection to allegations of assault that had been made by
Grissom during the course of their relationship. In her interviews with investigators, the woman
maintained that she’d carried out the shooting as a form of retaliation against her alleged abuser.
Grissom’s legal defense team further argued that, due to her husband’s repeated instances of
assault, she’d begun suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which ultimately served as a
contributing factor in her making the decision to kill him. In Grissom’s ensuing trial, however,
prosecutors from the state’s Attorney General’s Office claimed that her assault accusations
against her ex-husband were false, and that she’d actually killed him in order to collect a
$103,000 life insurance policy, of which she was the sole heir. In September of 2014,
Grissom was convicted of murder and consequently sentenced to 25 years in prison.
#5 - Heather Mack
On the night of August the 7th of 2014, Indonesian police received reports of a bloody suitcase
having been left in the trunk of a taxicab outside the St. Regis Hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali.
Upon inspecting the suitcase, officers discovered that the body of a female victim, Sheila von
Wiese-Mack, had been stuffed inside of it. The police learned that the case had been placed
in the trunk of the cab by a pair of suspects, identified as Tommy Schaeffer and his girlfriend,
Heather Mack, who was also the victim’s daughter. It subsequently emerged that Mack had accompanied
her mother on a vacation to Indonesia before secretly booking a flight for Schaeffer
to come as well. At the time of the trip, Mack and her mother had been involved in a heated dispute
in which the latter was seeking power of attorney over her daughter. If awarded legal authority over
Mack, she reportedly intended to force her to terminate her pregnancy, as she didn’t
approve of her relationship with Schaeffer. In an alleged effort to subvert her mother’s control,
Mack, along with Schaeffer, killed her in her hotel room with what was described as
a “metallic blunt object”. After the authorities had found the woman’s body in the suitcase,
they arrested the 2 suspects at a nearby motel. It was later revealed that Mack was the beneficiary
of a $1.6 million trust fund from her mother, which investigators believed to have been the
primary motive behind the killing. Schaeffer and Mack were ultimately sentenced to 18 and 10 years
in prison, respectively following their 2015 convictions on charges of premeditated murder.
#4 - Kenneth Atkinson
On August the 15th of 2020, Oregon man Ray Atkinson Jr. and his fiancée, Natasha Newby,
were beaten to death inside the Bend home that had previously belonged to the former’s father, who’d
passed away a year earlier. Concerned friends of the couple eventually came upon their bodies
in the basement, and Deschutes County officials subsequently launched an investigation into the
matter, which was classified as a double homicide. Although investigators immediately suspected
that Atkinson’s brother, Kenneth, might have been responsible for his and his partner’s murder, they
were unable to pursue criminal charges against him for over a year due to a lack of evidence.
Court records indicated that Ray Atkinson Sr. had left behind a $400,000 inheritance,
but had neglected to draft a will prior to his death. The absence of a legally binding document
to officially distribute the man’s wealth, caused Kenneth and his brother to become embroiled in a
dispute over which one of them was the estate’s true heir. Detectives postulated that Kenneth
might have resorted to killing his brother, thereby inheriting the entirety of his father’s
estate himself. By October of 2021, the police had finally collected enough evidence to support their
theory, and they filed two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree conspiracy
to commit murder against Kenneth. The latter was arrested along with his nephew, who was accused of
assisting in the murders in exchange for an undisclosed share of the inheritance money.
#3 - Kemia Hassel
Shortly before 11 pm on December the 31st of 2018, Tyrone Hassel III, an active duty
sergeant in the United States Army, left a family dinner party in St. Joseph Township,
Michigan to bring his wife a plate of food. The latter, 22-year-old Kemia Hassel,
was also a member of the Army, and had reportedly been stationed with her husband at Fort Stewart
in Georgia. According to subsequent reports, Hassel III was fatally shot in the head and neck,
shortly after departing from the family gathering. Following an investigation into the incident,
the police identified Jeremy Cuellar, another soldier stationed at Fort Stewart, as the
individual responsible for Hassel III’s killing. The authorities also accused the victim’s wife
of being directly involved in the murder plot. It subsequently emerged that Kemia and Cuellar
had been involved in a romantic affair with one another, and had devised the plan to eliminate
Hassel III to allow them to continue their relationship. As was detailed by the Army Times,
military officials provide a $100,000 death gratuity to next-of-kin when a service member
dies while on active duty. Investigators expressed their belief that the financial gain associated
with the death of Kemia’s husband served as an additional motive for the 2 suspects. Following
a three-day murder trial that saw 23 witnesses for the prosecution, Kemia was convicted and sentenced
to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Cuellar pleaded guilty to second-degree
murder in July of 2019, and he consequently faced a sentence of 65 to 90 years behind bars.
#2 - Joanne Hussey
English woman Joanne Hussey broke into her grandmother’s West Yorkshire residence
on the night of May the 7th of 2007 and proceeded to brutally murder her with
a garden spade. According to court documents associated with the case, the 77-year-old victim,
named as Annie Garbutt, sustained a multitude of injuries during her granddaughter’s attack,
including fractures to her ribs, sternum, and larynx. During the ensuing police investigation,
local authorities learned that, in 2006, Garbutt’s daughter Maureen,
who was Hussey’s mother, had been granted power of attorney over the elderly woman after she was
diagnosed with dementia. Over the course of the following year, Maureen allegedly stole
thousands of dollars from her mother’s bank accounts. Concerned that her grandmother’s
life savings might be depleted by her residential care payments, Hussey devised a plan to murder her
in order to inherit the money herself. Following a trial at Leeds Crown Court, Hussey was unanimously
found guilty of murdering her grandmother and was consequently sentenced to life in prison.
Although Maureen was convicted of stealing approximately $20,000 from the victim,
she was spared jail time to allow her to look after Hussey’s disabled daughter.
#1 - The Death of Richard Oland
The lifeless body of Canadian businessman Richard Oland was found lying face down in a pool of blood
at his New Brunswick office on the morning of July the 7th of 2011. Sergeant Mark Smith of the Saint
John Police Force later testified in court that the crime scene was “one of the bloodiest” of
his career, “with the most blows to a victim” he’d ever seen. Upon examining Oland’s corpse,
a forensic pathologist counted a total of 45 wounds to his hands, neck, and head. It was
ultimately concluded that 69-year-old Oland had been bludgeoned to death by an assailant wielding
a sharp-edged weapon of some kind. Shortly after the discovery of the murder scene, the police
began conducting interviews with members of the Oland family, including the victim’s wife and
children. Video footage of the police’s interview with the victim’s son, Dennis, showed the latter
giving a detailed account of his activities during the day prior to Oland’s death. At the midpoint of
the surveillance video, a Saint John detective informed Dennis that they believed he was
responsible for his father’s murder, an accusation which he categorically denied. Investigators
detailed how, prior to his death, Oland had amassed a fortune amounting to approximately
$37 million as the sixth generation scion of the Moosehead Brewery company. Dennis was accused of
committing his father’s murder in order to inherit his share of the massive estate. Following his
criminal trial, the longest and most expensive trial in the city of Saint John’s history,
Dennis was convicted of second-degree murder and consequently sentenced to life imprisonment
with the possibility of parole after 10 years. However, upon filing an appeal of his conviction,
Dennis was granted a retrial, which took place in the summer of 2019. His defense was
able to establish a reasonable doubt as to whether Dennis could have been at the scene of the crime
when it occurred, and he was ultimately exonerated of the murder charge. The Saint John Police Force
faced considerable criticism for the “sloppy” investigative work that had led to their
identification of Dennis as a suspect. Provincial court Judge Ronald LeBlanc claimed that the police
had “failed to establish” a motive for Dennis to kill his father, as it was Connie, Oland’s wife,
who stood to receive the $37 million inheritance, not Dennis himself.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather be removed from your parents’ will or be in the
bridal party of each of your exes’ weddings? Let us know in the comments section below!