Officer, Will You Please Kill My Husband?

Jennifer Gambill wanted a killer. She wound up with a cop.

Faced with a $25,000 credit card debt and an angry husband, Jennifer Gambill had some decisions to make--and she decided to kill her spouse. The 31-year-old Virginia housewife even had a plan: A hit man would shoot him during a fake robbery, then smack her around to cover their tracks.

There was one problem: The killer she hired was an undercover police officer, and in March she was sentenced to four years behind bars.

Jennifer Gambill is not alone. Defendants who have hired an undercover agent posing as a hit man are diverse. Their common denominator is an inability to spot a gun-toting sheep in wolf’s clothing.

Among recent arrestees: a prominent Maryland politician; a Florida religious broadcaster; an ex-Dallas cop; an Illinois newlywed; an Albany nurse; two Kansas lovers who wanted two different spouses killed; two fathers-to-be intent on avoiding parenthood; a Long Island college student.

The suspects are not numerous, but their cases tend to be memorable. They make strange offers of payment: Jennifer Gambill offered her wedding ring as a symbol of good faith. One man offered his ex-girlfriend’s engagement ring.

Death is forever. Love, alas, is fleeting.

The buyers sometimes haggle over prices, or offer advice to their hired help. They may have strange requests: 38-year-old Darcey Lindenmier, married just 3 1/2 months, wanted to watch her 60-year-old husband die, Illinois authorities allege. Her case is pending.

If no two suspects are the same, how did each make the same mistake? For one thing, undercover officers are quite convincing, law enforcement officials say.

“People aren’t looking for some Hollywood version of a killer,” explains Terry Parham, a veteran Drug Enforcement Administration special agent who once worked undercover. “It could be anybody. . . . There is no set description for someone who does this kind of work.”

The most recent high-profile case, against a former Maryland candidate for the U.S. Senate, ended in late March with a jury hung 11 to 1 in favor of conviction. Ruthann Aron allegedly plotted to kill her husband of 32 years--and, for good measure, a lawyer who was her longtime nemesis.

Her lawyer says she is considering a plea bargain rather than tempting fate at trial again.

When arrested last year, Ruthann Aron looked like something out of a made-for-TV movie, with wig, floppy hat and trench coat. She had allegedly just dropped off a $500 down payment on a $10,000-per-head contract against the two men.

The case pointed up a major reason for such hiring gaffes: Unlike a mobster or a gang member, a politician living in a $700,000 suburban home has little experience in contacting hit men.

Ruthann Aron reached out to a political contact, who went to the police. She was soon speaking with an undercover officer posing as a contract killer.

The suspect wanted more than a murder; she wanted a bargain. When the “hit man” pressed her for a $1,000 down payment, she made a counteroffer of $500.

Asked whom she wanted killed, prosecutors say, Ruthann Aron patiently spelled out her husband’s name: “A like apple, R-O-N. First name, B like boy, A-R-R-Y.”

In Maryland, state police have actually trained a trooper to pose as a hit man. George Forsythe has made 20 arrests in eight years as a decoy killer for hire, dealing with an assortment of characters while keeping a low public profile.

The 14-year veteran has fielded murder-for-hire offers from wealthy professionals, and from a man who offered just $75. He rejected the latter, saying that would only buy a baseball-bat beating.

Pat Clark, a spokesman for Brooklyn Dist. Atty. Charles J. Hynes since 1990, recalls only three such cases coming through their office. In each instance, the adage that there’s no honor among thieves applied.

“Somebody goes shopping for a hit man,” Clark relates. “But they’re on the fringes of the underworld, dealing with lowlifes who usually have their own problems. Those people then make a deal to better their own situation.”

That’s what happened to Martha Garcia of Freeport, N.Y., in 1996, when she handed a stack of 30 $100 bills to an undercover investigator. Her boyfriend, a New York City police officer, had a baby daughter from a previous relationship.

Martha Garcia, a psychology student at a Long Island college, became convinced that the 14-month-old girl was coming between her and the boyfriend. Unable to locate a suburban hit man, she put the word out in Brooklyn.

An informant gave her name to the D.A. A sting was arranged, with Garcia suggesting the murder could look like crib death.

“Do you want me to sneak in and smother the baby?” the undercover officer asked. “Yeah, that would be great,” agreed Garcia, who was later convicted and given a 7-to-21-year jail term. “As long as it looks clean.”

Defense attorneys have suggested that there’s an element of entrapment, but the cases are tough for defendants to beat because of the often graphic taped conversations recorded by the undercover cops.

After his conviction for hiring a federal agent to kill his lover’s estranged husband, Florida televangelist theRev. George Crossley accepted his four-year sentence philosophically. “Prison is a great place to witness for Christ,” he said. “I’m going to share my faith.”

Amen.