When investigators arrested Betty Neumar in connection with the shooting death of her husband, Harold Gentry, on July 14, 1986, they had no idea that his hit-for-hire may have just been the beginning. It turns out that the 76-year-old Neumar has had five husbands since the 1950s, all of whom are now dead.Law enforcement officials in the areas where Neumar lived with the men have been notified of her arrest and some investigators are re-opening old cold case files.
Officially, Neumar has currently only been charged in the death of Harold Gentry, a man she married in 1968 when he was 29 and she was 36. For more than 20 years, Harold's brother Al suspected Neumar in his death, but she was out of town on the night he was shot and left to die on the floor of the couple's home.
Suspected From the Beginning
Al told anyone who would listen that he suspected Neumar because when she returned to Charlton County, Georgia, from Augusta the day after Harold was found dead, the first thing she said was that she had been in Augusta the night before.
Now investigators have charged her with hiring a hit man to kill Harold in order to collect $20,000 in life insurance benefits.
"If she had gotten out of that car with tears in her eyes and asked me why would anybody kill Harold, I would never have suspected her at all," he said. "That's where she slipped up."
Neumar is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond. At her arraignment, prosecutors said she tried to hire several people to kill Harold Gentry, offering them cash and a pickup truck to do it.
See Also:
Woman Arrested in Cold Case Has Other Dead Spouses
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