Two Colorado men have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with their alleged plan to use rattlesnakes as deadly weapons to collect money from a poker club owner. Herbert Paul Beck, 56, and Christopher Lee Steelman (pictured), 34, were also charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping and extortion.
The two Lakewood men said Matthew Sowash, owner of Amateur Poker Tour in Wheat Ridge, owed them $60,000. One of the plans they had to get the money from Sowash was to build a wooden box to put his legs into with the snakes, police said.
According to Colorado Bureau of Investigation Beck and Lee also discussed kidnapping Sowash's children in order to get money from Sowash. Beck invested $36,000 in Sowash's company last year, and with interest was owed $60,000, he told police.
Beck and Lee were being held on $500,000 bail.
See Also:
Men Accused of Murder-By-Snake Plot
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