Chapter 1: What happened to Ron Rudin in December 1994?
It's a horrible way to live.
Were you worried, looking over your shoulders?
Always. Every minute of every day.
In Revere, Massachusetts, a quiet blue-collar town just outside of Boston, 54-year-old Lee Brown was keeping a dark secret.
I am not in the habit of talking to people about my life.
She would just come in, she'd say hello. To those that knew her, Lee was a sweet, quiet woman.
And my shop is right there. Print shop owner Vince Laporta was Lee's neighbor. She'd probably come in like two or three times a week and make copies. She was very pleasant. She was basically like a grandmother, you know? Very soft-spoken, very nice.
A nice lady. Just one of the regulars. Jackie Mello served Lee coffee at his Blues diner. There was just something about her. She was more classy. You know, a more well-spoken, well-educated kind of girl. No one ever knew Lee Brown was really Margaret Rudin, a woman suspected of murder in Nevada.
It's just unbelievable, you know.
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Chapter 2: Who is Margaret Rudin and what are the suspicions against her?
Charred remains of a body had been discovered in the desert 40 miles outside of Las Vegas. So this is where Ron Rudin stopped, right here. Not a very fitting end for anyone. They told me that Ron's remains had been found. I think I was numb more than anything else. Amongst the remains was the framework of an antique trunk. And about 35 feet that way towards the river was where the head rolled to.
The human skull. It was right in that area right there. Bullet holes in the skull. The medical examiner felt there was a possibility of decapitation having occurred post-mortem. Is Margaret Rudin capable of murder? Is she capable of murder? Without a doubt. It's unjust. It's not fair. If she is innocent, why then did this pleasant, soft-spoken grandmother go on the run for almost three years?
When you're helpless and you're totally alone, you do tend to maybe panic. That's next.
Right through here is where the trunk got dragged.
And then here's the burn spot right here where the fire actually took place. Las Vegas homicide detectives Phil Ramos and Jimmy Vaccaro have seen their share of murder. Somebody's dead.
We want to know who did it.
But nothing compares to what they believe happened to Ron Rudin. Shot, possibly decapitated, hauled some 45 miles outside of town. Does that sound like overkill? It does to me.
I did not kill my husband.
Now Ron's wife, Margaret, will stand trial for his murder. This is my handsome husband on her way to church. I want to remember him during the good times. Do you still love him? Yes. So does Ron's cousin, Brenda Woods. We were very close. Who was like a sister to Ron.
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Chapter 3: What evidence led police to suspect Margaret Rudin?
Margaret hired Augustine Lovato to remodel the bedroom before Ron's body had been found.
This is what I turned into an office for.
Why, detectives ask, would Margaret Rudin do so before she knew the fate of her husband? This is all done before we even make the death notification. If Ron's coming home, Where are they gonna sleep? Detectives say Margaret was trying to clean up the murder scene by removing furniture and carpeting.
There was what I thought was blood on the carpet.
And when I was cutting through it, this like scabby type material kept sticking to me. It looked like dried blood. But there was more. Lovato also noticed a portrait of Margaret hanging over the bed. It gave me a creepy feeling like it was staring at me. On it, there appeared to be blood. I saw brownish-red splatters going up the whole picture.
And then when I saw that, I put the carpet and those two together and went, wow. Based on Lovato's statement, detectives searched the bedroom. The carpeting had long since been thrown out. They could only find tiny traces of blood on the ceiling, walls, and the portrait. Police failed to find a sample of Ron's DNA so they couldn't tell if it was his blood.
But detectives believe it was and say this is where Margaret shot Ron and killed him. all of this movement of the trunk and everything. Ron Rudin was a six-foot-plus man at about 220. Detectives have a theory Margaret didn't act alone.
We know there's a co-conspirator. We know there's some help in this. But is Margaret capable of sliding up behind Ron while he's sleeping in bed and shooting him?
No doubt in my mind. And Ron's friend and bookkeeper Sharon Melton says Ron thought so too.
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Chapter 4: How did investigators find Ron Rudin's remains?
And there was another reason. I had never liked being in the bedroom because I had been told Peggy had committed suicide in there. Peggy is Peggy Rudin, Ron Rudin's third wife, who shot herself in the head in that very bedroom. That was always... something that bothered me. Item, the murder weapon, Ron's own gun. There's no way that they could say I was the only person that had access.
Did you take the gun? No, I did not. So if Margaret Rudin didn't kill her husband, who did?
Margaret was framed for the murder of her husband, in my opinion.
Amador points to these two people, Sharon Cooper and Harold Biscutti, longtime friends of Ron Rudin and trustees of his estate.
They're the ones who had a far greater motive to kill Ronald Rudin than Margaret did.
You're looking at what attorney Michael Amador calls the motivation for murder, Ron Rudin's land. Cooper and Boscotti, along with Margaret Rudin, were all beneficiaries of the estate. Amador believes that Cooper and Boscotti arranged Ron Rudin's murder, framing Margaret, so that they would be the only beneficiaries of the estimated $12 million fortune. Prosecutors say that's absurd.
The trustees were not the individuals who had access to that deadly weapon, the gun. They're not the individuals who fled in this investigation. They're not the people that changed the room and altered the bedroom.
Michael Amador has his work cut out for him. This is a private document. So does co-defense counsel Tom Pitaro. There's been nothing simple in this case. Their strategy? Prove Ron Rudin wasn't killed in his bedroom. There is absolutely no possible way that he was shot in that room. If they can prove that, they say the entire state's theory falls apart.
The blood that they describe is not the result of a high velocity spray as a result of a gunshot wound to his head.
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Chapter 5: What was the motive behind Ron Rudin's murder?
No, it was 1983.
1983.
But his efforts to discredit Cantrell fall short.
I want to know what you intend to elicit from this witness.
I will only be cross-examining her about specific incidents. In 1984, she slammed a glass up against a man's head at a bar because he called her a bitch for it. because it was crowded and she pushed him. And there were other acts of violence that she perpetrated.
It is going to be ridiculous. She's not on trial here. This woman is not on trial. This woman testified.
You have a right to impeach her, but this is getting ridiculous. As Margaret watches on, she loses faith in her attorney. My attorney was not prepared. Mr. Amador was getting worse with every day that passed instead of better. Department 6 District Court is now in session. Please be seated. On the following day, Margaret does something about it.
Mr. Rubin, stand up a minute. What is the issue here?
I would like to ask for a mistrial because I don't believe that Mr. Amador is prepared enough. Amador supports his client's motion and admits defeat. The extensiveness of the case made it impossible given the time. But the judge doesn't buy it.
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