Mother of Alleged Victim Testifies in ‘Billionaire Boys’ Trial

Many who knew Ron Levin considered him a shady if entertaining con man, but to his mother he was a devoted son who called at least once a week and showered her with flowers, gifts and love notes.

Testifying Tuesday in the trial of Billionaire Boys Club leader Joe Hunt, who is accused of murdering Levin, Carol Levin said she usually visited or talked with her son several times a week. He had never gone more than a week without calling her in 24 years--until his disappearance almost three years ago, she said.

They last talked, she said, on June 6, 1984, the night before he was to leave his Beverly Hills duplex on a trip to New York City. Asked what they discussed, she said, “Something inane. I think I said something like ‘be sure you take a sweater.’ ”

She described her missing son as “an amazingly brilliant fellow” who was both lonely and hyperactive. She said they never discussed details of his business, but that it involved a legal service that provided clients with lawyers. Friends last week testified that Levin used several aliases and posed as a doctor, lawyer and banker.

Prosecutor Fred Wapner called Carol Levin in a bid to cast doubt on the contention of Hunt’s attorneys that Levin is still alive and may have skipped town to elude creditors and grand theft charges.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Arthur Barens, Levin’s mother conceded that a missing persons report on her then 42-year-old son was not filed until a month later because his lawyer advised, “Let’s wait.”

She said she called his telephone exchange repeatedly after his disappearance because “I kept hoping, like anybody hopes, like a mother hopes.”

Hunt, 27, and his bodyguard, Jim Pittman, 33, are accused of murdering Levin for revenge and profit. Hunt allegedly had been duped by Levin in a commodities trading hoax and his business ventures were collapsing. They allegedly forced Levin to sign a check for $1.5 million from a Swiss bank account before shooting him in the head and dumping his body, which has never been found, in a remote canyon area.

Pittman’s first trial ended in a hung jury; a second trial is scheduled.