♪ bright light city going to set my soul ♪ ♪ set my soul on fire ♪ it could not have happened anywhere else other than las vegas. >> love makes the world go round, but money greases the wheels. there's a lot going through las vegas. >> you have beauty, riches, intrigue, mystery. ♪ viva las vegas ♪ ♪ viva las vegas ♪ >> infamous convicted killer margaret rudin. >> margaret rudin locked up for about two decades. >> this story is an absolute roller coaster. it's one of those fact is

stranger than fiction. >> after four failed marriages ron met margaret rudin. >> her millionaire husband ron, he was shot in his sleep and his burned body was discovered in the desert. >> i think it's a story of greed personified. >> and that huge land deal. that's motive, motive, motive, motive. >> ron was shot and killed. we know that. then the question is, who's behind it? >> margaret rudin indicted on murder charges. >> a lot of people thought that margaret rudin had to be innocent. others believed she was basically the most evil person on the face of this earth. >> margaret rudin, unfazed, stoic, cold. >> killed him for money, fled the scene. >> if you spot margaret rudin, a call our hotline at 1-800-crimetv. >> black widow. that's the persona from the media coverage and the fact that she was charged and convicted of murder. >> we find the defendant guilty.

>> just out of prison after a 20-year sentence, margaret rudin sat down with "20/20" to tell her story and to talk about how she's still fighting to to clear her name. >> i am margaret rudin mason. i did not kill ron. they zeroed in on me. >> she's been locked up for the past 20 years for the brutal beheading and murder of her millionaire husband ron rudin. >> they had no evidence. they had no witnesses. >> margaret rudin, dubbed the black widow of las vegas. >> black widow. >> black widow. >> they stuck the name on me -- black widow, black widow, black widow, like i had killed somebody before, or like that i was in the habit. i think that people don't know me. they don't try to know. >> margaret rudin is a

chameleon. she's been a blonde, a brunette, a redhead. >> i like change. i'm a gemini. >> she's a chameleon, definitely. >> i like to wear wigs. i like short. i like long. i like curly. i like straight. i don't want to look the same way all the time. even when i sit in front of your cameras, i may look different. but you're still going to know it's me. >> i'm greg mullanax. i'm an attorney here in fresno, california, and i represent margaret rudin. >> there are so many holes in this case. after going through all this stuff, considering everything, i'm convinced that margaret rudin's innocent. she was wrongly convicted. >> even though it's circumstantial, all the evidence pointed to margaret rudin. i'm 100% convinced that margaret

was responsible for ron's death. >> it was a mystery, which, quite truthfully, to this day hasn't been solved. >> what happened to ron? we still don't know. 20 years later. they never checked on anyone but me. i want the truth to come out. i have waited a long time. >> this story really starts in las vegas in the 1960s. >> i have a feeling it's going to be a long show, boys. >> we're talking old school vegas, where frank sinatra and the rat pack held court at the sands hotel and the mob's tentacles ran deep. >> good old times. it was smooth. everything was smooth. but underneath that river of

calmness was a torrent. vegas was cruel. >> the mob was real. they did run things. they would blow up your car. they would do whatever they had to do to make their point across so you knew, don't screw with us because we will kill you. it's pretty simple. >> it was into this risky, free-wheeling environment that 30-year-old ron rudin landed in las vegas in 1960, with big dreams of making his fortune in real estate. >> ron saw great things that could transpire in las vegas back then. i love this picture. it's like he's looking at you, saying, hey, i'm ron rudin. i have a lot of plans for my future. >> he bought a strip mall. he had his office right there, but in the '80s and '90s when the explosion of construction hit in las vegas, that is when he started to make his real

fortune. >> he watched las vegas just explode, and he was part of that with his real estate business. >> you could make a killing. that's exactly what ron rudin did. >> so, this is old vegas. what was ron's reputation like around these parts? >> ron's reputation, he had a reputation of being a hard-nose businessman. >> some people will say that ron rudin was unscrupulous, that it was anything at all costs to make money. >> he didn't like the glitz and the glitter. >> ron rudin wasn't a casino guy, but he absolutely made a name for himself in sin city. >> he was one of the characters here in las vegas. >> ron would always wear cowboy boots, dressed all in black. >> ron rudin's style was a bit flashy, if you will. with flash comes those other undercurrents. the need for power, the need to be in charge, the need to be in control. he loved guns.

he had a huge armory full of guns, all kinds of guns. >> then he had the cadillac. yep. that's what he drove, the black cadillac. >> he wasn't afraid to show off that he had made it. he knew he was on top of the pile. >> women were attracted to ron rudin, and a lot of it was because of his lifestyle and his money, and he absolutely loved playing the love game. >> he had a twinkle. he was very handsome. not just your average handsome. he really stood out. >> and when it came to his marriages, ron went through wives like a casino dealer goes through packs of cards. >> ron rudin was married a total of five times, and each one of those marriages was its own story. >> ron's first marriage in 1962 to wife donna lasted less than a year. after about an eight-year hiatus, he gets hitched to his

second wife, caralynne. while their marriage eventually failed, ron kept a bracelet that she gave him with his name on it in diamonds, and he never took that thing off. >> peggy was ron's third wife, and this one appeared to be a happy marriage, but behind closed doors, peggy suffered from severe depression, and that depression would manifest itself in the way of suicide. peggy put a gun to her own head in the couple's bedroom. >> the gun that she used to kill herself with had ron's fingerprints on it. it raised eyebrows. people thought maybe he killed peggy. >> but there was a full investigation into her death, and it was in fact ruled a suicide. >> after getting married and splitting up for a fourth time, this time with wife karen, just months after the divorce in september of 1987, a woman in church caught his eye. a pretty 42-year-old blonde named margaret mason. >> well, i had made a joke to

one of my friends that went to our church. i had said to her, the very next husband i have is going to wear cowboy boots. because in vegas, that means they're macho. and i like macho. >> yeah. that's her southern background. >> so, one day she said, there's a guy over there behind us that keeps looking at you, and he's wearing cowboy boots! >> well, she was very smitten with him. >> i tell you, i've never met anybody better and slicker and smarter and suaver than he was. >> she just seemed like a really sweet person. and then i started hearing, you know, the other stuff. >> she didn't really realize what she had gotten into. >> one night he said to me quietly, what would you say if i told you i murdered peggy? ♪ ♪i've got the brains you've got the looks♪ ♪let's make lots of money♪

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♪ going to the chapel and we're going to get married ♪ ♪ going to the chapel ♪ i think i fall in love too easily, but i don't regret them. ♪ gee i really love you ♪ >> margaret would never have a problem finding a husband. it's like liz taylor, you know? >> i have a thing with men. i want to be needed. i need to be needed.

>> i was born in memphis. i am the oldest in the family. three daughters. >> her mother seemed like a really nice, warm person, in contrast with her dad who i think was a strict, religious guy. >> we could not wear shorts, wear slacks, cut our hair. you weren't supposed to do anything for pleasure. when elvis presley was the rage, he refused to let us watch him on tv because of his gyrations. >> she was always traveling and stuff. she went to a bunch of schools, like 10 or 15 or something like that. >> my father was a barber. he would open a new barber shop, stay there until he got tired of the place, and so we'd move someplace else. >> so margaret settled down and got married. >> i was married to jerry mason right out of high school. >> she had two children, michael

and a daughter, christina. they lived just north of chicago along lake michigan. fenc we we had the dog, we had the swings. they had all the things that i never had. >> she really seemed it have a perfect life, a settled life. until she didn't. >> my husband had an affair. i went to real estate school, got my license, and found i could make it on my own. so i did. >> but for margaret, it was hardly one and done when it came to marriage. over the following years, she would quickly marry and divorce two more husbands. >> i think i'm easy to be married to because i'm a people pleaser. that's why none of the men in my life ever asked me for a divorce, not one. i always had to bring it up first.

>> by 1981, margaret was looking for a fresh start, so she moved to las vegas, where she got married and split up with husband number four. but just four months after the divorce, she decides to roll the dice again and marry wealthy vegas realtor ron rudin. >> there are a total of eight combined previous marriages, but from the beginning it looks promising. >> the thing that i liked the most about ron was he had a very dry wit. and he was fun to be around. did you want to hear he was the best lover i ever had? >> they made a dynamic good-looking couple. by all rights she should have had a wonderful life. >> for margaret, she says everything darkened when she moved into ron's house, which was located right behind the strip mall and his office. >> she did not know that the house had not been renovated since peggy's suicide.

>> one night, he said to me, quietly, what would you say if i told you i murdered peggy? and i kind of caught my breath. and i didn't know what to say, because if i'd have said, yes, i want the details, i would have had to have left. i just said, no. no, you're not going to relieve your guilt by telling me. i don't want to know. and he said okay, and we never brought it up again. >> from a distance they look like the perfect couple, but behind the scenes, it was very volatile. firearms, disputes about money, affairs. >> it wouldn't be long before margaret discovers that ron is having an affair with an irs agent. >> in margaret's case, she was allegedly having an affair with

a man named yehuda sharon. he claims to be a former officer in the mossad, which is israel's intelligence agency. >> we weren't having an affair, because i was married. if i hadn't of been married, he wasn't my type. >> sharon also denied there was an affair, but the mutual jealousy and suspicion all came to a head one night when margaret says she overheard ron talking to a woman that he dated before they got married. >> and we got into an argument because he didn't care that i heard the conversation. >> it gets to a point where margaret pulls a gun on ron in the bedroom. >> he slapped me, and so i got the gun. he wrestled it out of my hand, and i knew that was the closest to death i was ever going to get by the look on his face.

and i said, okay, that's it. i'm out of here. and he said, no, no, no, you don't have to go. i promise you, nothing like that will ever happen again. >> they went and had some counseling. she got to understand him a little bit better. she loved him. she really didn't want to divorce him. >> it was ron that went back to get margaret. and people believe that margaret stayed with ron because she at this point was after his money. >> i called him and he says, margaret's diagramming out how she's going to split up all my money. and he says, i'm really getting nervous. i told him, you better watch your back. >> and to add to ron's worries, at the time he was knee deep in a massive real estate development deal, and he was struggling to get financing. >> we're up here at the lee

canyon property that ron rudin owned. it's about an hour outside of las vegas, about 8,000 feet. and ron had hoped to make a development up here. and apparently, ron was expecting an offer on this property. >> he had several million invested in this project called the retreat at lee canyon. >> lee canyon is currently a ski resort, but in the '90s, there were questions raised about how ron was funding his plans for an rv resort at the location. >> ron at one point, apparently approached some people that were affiliated with organized crime seeking, you know, money to help develop this place. >> well, he got paranoid. the older he got and the worse he was drinking, he really started getting paranoid. >> he had a horrible fear of people. and he had guns, but he was still always afraid. >> maybe he thought an ominous directive he made about his fortune was about to come true.

>> ron almost seemed to predict his fate by putting in his will, that if i were to ever die of foul play, look at the people around me who stand to benefit from this fortune. >> so that tells you something's not quite right. what would make a man have his attorney draw up a directive that says, in the event that i die under any strange circumstances, my death is to be investigated thoroughly. >> i think he was frightened. so, the story with depression... it's multiple symptoms that hold you back and you wish the socks would sort themselves. enough. then your doctor tells you about trintellix, a prescription medicine for adults with depression. so you're feeling this overall relief. and trintellix had no significant impact on weight in clinical trials. you got this!

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♪ ♪ in december of 1994,

margaret rudin was really excited about a new antique business that her husband ron helped her set up. >> december 17th was margaret's grand opening of her new antique store in ron's strip mall. it was her big opening that weekend. >> ron came because he kind of played host. ou know, like, this is my shop. this is my wife. i was excited about it because ron was happy and being supportive. i thought it was going to all work out, be perfect. >> margaret leaves the grand opening and goes home. she and ron had a plan to go to a movie. and that didn't work out, so she decides, let's go back to the antique store. >> she said she closed the antique store late, very late. she went over to see another tenant and, you know, just to talk and chat. >> margaret claims she went back home at about 2:00 in the morning. >> ron's car wasn't there. the burglar alarm wasn't on. and i thought, well, that's strange.

i thought, i'm so tired, i'm just going to go to bed. maybe he did go meet somebody. >> the next morning, ron's employees get to the real estate office, and there's no sign of ron rudin. >> uniformly, all his coworkers and friends said he was in the office every morning 8:00 a.m., very dependable. the fact he didn't show up was so unusual. >> ron rudin is one of these guys who tells people where he is at all times. he is never, ever missing. and now he is. >> i knew something he was going to be doing that most people didn't know about. he was selling the lee canyon property on wednesday, so >> the first thing margaret did on monday morning, when ron wasn't home, is she called her friend up on the mountain and said, have you seen ron up there? >> and ron used to keep a trailer up here. he would just spend the night in the trailer.

and so they searched the whole property, and there was no sign of ron. >> she called all the relatives. she sounded very frightened. and she said, i don't know where ron is. i don't know what to do. i don't know what's happened to him. >> i called missing persons the 19th, and the said, "call us back when it's been 48 hours." >> ron's coworkers and friends were immediately suspicious of margaret. >> i call in the morning. the secretary says, he didn't come in this morning. i said, uh-oh. i turned to my wife. i says, i think margaret did something to ron. >> and defense did a cursory search of the shop and the house. at that time, they didn't find anything that would give them cause to investigate any further. when the detectives talked to her, she didn't seem to be worried about ron being missing. she seemed to be more concerned about his finances.

>> the suspicion only grew after investigators learned about that ominous directive that ron added to his trust. >> ron wrote in his will that if any of his beneficiaries were involved in his death, either directly or indirectly, that they should receive nothing. >> the will, that if i die a violent death, you know, take extraordinary means to investigate. so certainly there is a lot of motive there for margaret. >> the police think this was about money and that margaret was greedy and she wanted his fortune. >> margaret and the two trustees of ron's estate were among the beneficiaries. according to ron's attorney, ron said margaret was becoming, "vicious and violent." without naming margaret specifically, in 1991, ron seet to the trustees. two years later, though, things between them seem to have improved. so ron increased her share.

>> when he increased it finally, i think it was 60%. you generally don't give more to people that you're having a problem with. >> because the cops were so focused on margaret right out of the gate, they may have been overlooking another possible motive in ron's disappearance -- that huge lee canyon development project. >> now, this deal that he was working on, he disappeared two days before he was due to settle. well, that's motive. >> and so that was one of the theories early on in the case is that perhaps that dealing, that purchase was perhaps behind the killing of ron rudin. >> ron rudin is missing for four days, and then a huge development. >> we heard that they found his cadillac. >> this is the crazy horse too gentleman's club here in las vegas. and the significance of this place is right behind this building is where ron rudin's car was found. >> was there anything unusual about the condition of the car when they found it?

>> yes, it was backed into the space for one thing, and then it was covered with dirt and mud, like it had been rained on in the dirt. then inside the vehicle, they found four sets of muddy footprints. ron was very meticulous with his car. he even hired a guy to keep his car clean. >> i never believed that ron had driven the cadillac to the topless club. i always believed that it was placed there by someone that was involved. >> there were the muddy footprints in the car. and they recovered fingerprints that didn't belong to either ron or margaret. it might be an indication that, you know, the car was cleaned. >> police also find clothing in the trunk. despite all of these clues, weeks would then go by, and no more leads. >> have you seen this man? he's ron rudin, a 64-year-old realtor, well known in las vegas. >> in january of 1995, the trustees of ron's estate put out a $25,000 reward for information leading to his whereabouts. >> and he was gone.

no one ever saw him again. until he was found. >> a little ways up the hill, they found a bracelet. and it spelled out ron in, like, diamonds. >> when this happened, it was kind of a big deal.

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okay, here we are about 60 miles southeast of las vegas near lake mohave, at a place called nelson's landing, and this is where, on january 23rd of 1995, in the middle of the night, some fishermen were walking back up after it started raining and they walked up in this area and found ron rudin's skull. >> well, it seems like the case was being actively investigated, but nothing was coming forward until his remains were found.

>> they found a burned area over here that looked like some bones had been burned there. >> when the cops came to tell me about ron, your mind can't take so much at one time. they had said that ron's skull had been found, that he was dead. he'd been shot. i was in shock. >> well, that was heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking. you know, to think of him that way. >> so, greg, what else was found up there? >> okay, well, ryan, you're standing by where they found ron's remains, most of them. and then up here, it was ron's gold bracelet. and it was unique because it had his name ron, r-o-n, spelled out in diamonds. >> that bracelet was ron rudin. there it was. ron written right on it. >> now, when they found the

skull -- it had four bullet holes in it. three in the back and then one from the front. they identified the skull as belonging to ron rudin because the teeth on the skull were still intact. >> they found a burned out old trunk. there were some belts, metal belts that had wrapped around the trunk. >> we believed his body and the trunk had been placed there on the hill, and that it had been burned. >> if you go and look at the way it's all laid out, it was a signal, a sign. it was left there to tell a story. the skull, the bracelet, the cadillac, it's all left there intentionally. it's a old mob movie. they automatically assume when a spouse is killed, the other spouse is guilty. of course, they should have investigated margaret, but their total focus should not have been on margaret. >> and that trunk they found at the crime scene, they're convinced it came from margaret's antique shop.

>> the trunk did become crucial, because the hardware was said to be from a humpback trunk. we believed there was a receipt that came back to a humpback trunk in her inventory, but there was no humpback trunk at the store. >> so, i'm thinking about margaret. she's slim, maybe, i don't know, 120 pounds. in your mind, would it have been possible for her to dump the body here? >> i don't think so. i think it would be difficult for a strong man to do it, because you're talking about way up there on the hill and then dragging everything down. >> i don't think that margaret could have loaded the body in a trunk by herself. i think there was someone that helped her. >> they come up with her supposed boyfriend, yehuda sharon. so, they do is put both of them under surveillance. >> the theory was that margaret shot him while he slept and that she called yehuda and asked him to help.

>> he had rented his van, and he had taken the back seat out. and therefore the theory was that somehow margaret got sharon involved in moving the body. >> sharon's story was he was going to go to his part-time job in california. he ended up turning around and coming back to las vegas. >> when you look at how much mileage sharon had put on that rented van, could his story that he went partway to california be true, or did he go to nelson's landing? either is possible. >> yeah, mr. sharon had an alibi. >> he claimed he had nothing to do with it, and his girlfriend at the time told investigators that she was with him the weekend when ron was reported missing. it all checked out. >> there's no proof of yehuda's involvement in this. he portrayed this as a witch hunt. you know, that they were out to get margaret and he got sucked into this. >> i have no proof of that.

i'm convinced that he had far more knowledge than he let on. >> you can see how they looked at things and they tried to fit it in their narrative. oh, well she has an antique store, he rented a van. oh, he must have been involve in the it. even though he had an alibi for the time. >> as the police were investigating and honing in on margaret, they got a phone call from a handyman who told a remarkable story. >> augustine lovato tells investigators how he was hired by margaret rudin to clean up their home. that information would actually lead to augustine lovato receiving a $25,000 reward. >> he came forward talking about all this blood that was found in the bedroom and all the alterations of the house that he had been asked to do. >> he would tell investigators he also notices a red substance sort of gurgling out of the bathtub, which he also thought potentially was blood. >> when he talked about he could hear this gurgling -- it's a drain.

you put it in, it drains out. if you can find blood afterwards, fine, but it's not going to be gurgling four days later. or an hour later. >> well, it's awfully strange, the two missing persons detectives were out here, and they didn't see any blood. how did lovato see something that wasn't there however many days before? >> she hired lovato to remodel the bedroom. but ron was still just a missing person at that time. it wasn't a homicide case. >> he tells police that while ron was missing, margaret hired him to make some changes in the house. >> i wasn't renovating that house. i knew i was going to need a way to make a living if he didn't come back. so that i could support myself. i decided i could open a tea shop that i had already talked to ron about. everything in there was going to be antiques that i could sell. i wish i had been able to do it.

it would have been a success. the trustees had left me with no choice. >> they cut off margaret's money. she was getting a small paycheck from ron's business. they cut that off. >> the trustees named in ron's will justify it by saying they're simply carrying out ron's specific directive, that no one gets any money who caused his death by violent means. >> it was really, really petty. after ron's disappearance, they immediately took over the trust. by new year's eve, they had already cut me out of everything. i no longer had my shop in ron's property. so they were letting me have a message -- they were in control and they intended to make me penniless. and they succeeded. >> there's no forensics that ever puts margaret involved with ron's death.

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♪ ♪ it's one year after ron's death, and margaret is fighting two big battles. one the trustees of her husband's estate, his $12 million estate, are keeping her from getting any money. secondly, she's under suspicion for murder. >> and she was just being bled dry. i mean, she's got no income. they're trashing her name everywhere. >> the newspapers even were saying, first time a murder case is going to be settled in a civil trial against

margaret rudin. >> it was right before she was to testify. from a criminal perspective, we were really looking forward to her testimony. that was going to be very, very telling. >> if the trustees can convince the civil courts that she, margaret, in fact is responsible for the death of her husband she will not be entitled to any of the $12 million. >> ron trusted me. he wanted me to have a part of the inheritance because each time that he redid his trust, he increased my percentage by 20%. he would not have kept increasing the percentage if he had any doubts about me whatsoever or if we had a bad marriage. he wouldn't have. >> the battle ends up just basically fizzling out. margaret ends up settling for $600,000, and if you take out the $429,000 that she owes her

attorneys -- far cry from the millions that she was set to inherit if indeed he had died of natural causes or she wasn't under any suspicion. >> this was a very tricky investigation, and the police struggled for a long time to discern exactly how ron was murdered. they suspected he'd been shot while he was sleeping, but they never had the murder weapon. >> this lake has changed a lot since 1994 when ron disappeared. >> out here is where they found the gun. this is lake mead, and this is pyramid island.

and so one day, some scuba divers noticed some debris 10 to 15 feet out from the shore. they swam down there and brought it out, and it was a .22-caliber gun with a built-in silencer, and it was wrapped in about 15 plastic grocery bags in a t-shirt with rubber bands around it. >> it's a gun. they take it to the park ranger, then that ranger brings it to police. >> now, here's the thing -- the gun just sat in police storage for about a year. >> it's now 1997, two years after the murder of ron rudin. there is still no indictment against margaret. one of the detectives remembers, we need to look at that gun found in lake mead. >> this gun that had been found out at the lake, my partner in the case, chris owens, had asked the forensic laboratory to do testing. detective ramos both were going around saying, "we'll never be able to find the murder weapon because we won't be able to match the bullet fragments that were recovered from the skull to the gun. all of a sudden the bullets

matched. >> they brought it, tied it back to the gun that was found there at the lake. oh, that was a big, big linchpin in the case, because all of a sudden now we had this murder weapon. it was a gun that had a silencer on it, so it all made sense that this could be a gun that was used in the actual crime scene itself. >> the problem with that is they can't connect the murder weapon to margaret. they can't ever put the gun in margaret's hand. >> doesn't stop investigators from trying to do so. ron had actually sent a letter to police saying, hey, one of my guns from my gun collection is missing. but what it did do is lead police to believe that it must have been margaret who took that gun that was then missing. >> ron had left a report with atf indicating that that gun had turned up missing about the time that he and margaret had separated. >> i think it's a stretch to argue that margaret, for six years, hid this gun so she could use it on him in december

of 1994. >> ron had a huge vault in his house. >> it was an arsenal. he had at least 1,000 guns in there. thomas machine guns from the '30s, shelves that were at angles so you could see every single one of them clearly in view. >> it was the firearm recovered at the bottom of lake mead that pushed this thing over the edge. >> ron's car found at the crazy horse, the trunk found in the desert, the handyman's story. none of it was enough to indict margaret rudin. but now there's a gun, and it's a gun they believe was the one used to kill ron taken by margaret. >> now they have what they've been trying to get for years. >> i think with that, that was the piece they felt they needed to go to the grand jury, we found the gun.

and then three years after the disappearance with mr. rudin, margaret is indicted. >> here comes the interesting part now. they called margaret's attorney, and they said, hey, guess what? we got a murder warrant for margaret, and we need her to turn herself in. and the attorney promptly said, i don't know where she is. she's disappeared. >> we thought no [ bleep ]. >> the police for flabbergasted. rd the end of march of 1997, margaret finally got fed up with everything. she was running out of money, couldn't get a job because she was the black widow of las vegas. well, she left before she was ever indicted, and there's no crime about leaving and going anywhere if you're not under indictment. >> margaret got scared. she could tell it wasn't going in a good direction for her. >> at that time, i think i was so ready for a nervous breakdown, i didn't think that far ahead. i just wanted to get out of

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they automatically assume when the spouse is kelled the other spouse is guilty. love makes the world go round, but money greeces tases the whe >> there's no sign of ron ruden. >> he was gone. >> dubbed the black widow of las vegas. >> the nevada black widow. >> they never checked on anyone but me. >> if you spot margaret ruddin, call 1-8 hundred-crime tv. >> she had two if not three wigs. several i.d.s. >> she went on the lam. she outsmarted all of them. >> how often could you be that lucky? >> margaret just doesn't know

that luck is going to run out. >> 42 years, that was the worst trial i ever had. >> you are unfair doing that. >> it's wrong to mrs. ruddin, judge. >> listen to me! >> they had no forensics. >> in finger prints, >> this is a travesty, and i was part of that. it's the biggest regret of my life. really is. >> sometimes what happens in vegas stays in vegas. sometimes, goes on the run. >> why would you flee if you were innocent? >> guadalajara is a city in western mexico known for its tequila and its mariachi music.

its historic center is dotted with plazas and beautiful landmarks. in 1997, a middle-aged woman in a dark wig was seen frequenting the old colonial plaza. that woman was none other than margaret rudin. >> margaret rudin had been indicted for murder. her husband ron rudin's skull was found just outside of las vegas in 1994. >> police instantly zero in on margaret. they believe they've got a solid case. but it's only after police finally have what they believe to be is the murder weapon are they able to charge margaret rudin with murder. >> everything that had gone wrong, the way it was handled by police and the prosecutors, and i got really scared. i did not feel comfortable anymore, because they can do whatever they want to do with somebody's life. i wasn't going to get a chance to prove myself. >> she did call me and say, they think that i did it.

she always said she did not do it. she never admitted, that i know of, that she was guilty. and she ran. >> when margaret fled, it cemented public opinion, right? people thought she was guilty, right? why would you flee if you were innocent? >> i left for, i thought, a better life than what i had in vegas. i wanted peace of mind. mexico, they don't care where you're from. they don't pay attention to you. >> once margaret ends up in guadalajara, she finds an apartment in a building with mostly other americans, and she sort of works into the fabric of the downtown atmosphere of this mexican city. >> i love mexico. i like their way of life. nobody knew me. and i thought, this is a good place to live. >> meanwhile, back in the u.s., margaret may have been gone, but she was not forgotten.

she was on the fbi's wanted most wanted list. >> this is going to be a true test for margaret rudin. 53 years old, no criminal record. she has to figure out how to survive life on the run. >> i don't know how she did it, i really don't. >> well, one would think she had help or that she had studied it very, very closely. >> one useful tool that margaret has always possessed is her charm. men do like her. so what happens next is practically the making of a movie of the week. she meets a guy who claims to be a spanish bank robber, also on the run. >> oh, it was great. he was a wonderful companion. he was not my boyfriend. he taught me how to be a fugitive. the number one thing is always have a bag packed. have money, i.d., clothes. make sure you have whatever it

is you need the most in that bag. >> margaret becomes this master of disguise with different aliases, wearing different wigs. she even had colored contacts. but eventually she decided she was ready to come back to the u.s. >> life on the run is not what it's cracked up to be, right? it's a tough existence. you want to live in mexico under an alias, scrapping it out, or will you take your chances coming back to the united states? >> i had friends that came to visit me in mexico. and then they asked me if i wanted to come back and live with them in phoenix. once you have children and grandchildren, you cannot go somewhere else and live and act like you're having a normal life. >> margaret has to figure out a way to safely get back into the united states, so once again she uses her charm and convinces a gentleman who lives in the same apartment building in guadalajara to help her. >> joe lundergan was a boston

fireman, retired. very, very, very needy. he was never my boyfriend. i have never been that desperate in my life. i said, i've decided i'm going back to the states. and he said, i will get you across the border. we got to the border, where you're on u.s. territory, and you're not gonna slip them $100 and they're going to let you walk across. and joe said, just a minute. he pulls out his boston fireman retired card, and you know how police are a fraternity? firemen are included in their fraternity. and the guy said, oh, okay, go. you can both go. >> margaret and joe lundergan part ways. he heads back home to the boston area, and she settles into a new life in phoenix, assuming yet another identity using the name of a friend. >> margaret is in phoenix. she's gotten herself a room at the ymca.

she once worked in the hotel business, so that's a bit of a resume, and she uses it to get a job at the san carlos hotel. >> my poor manager. he used to say, if you ever tell me you're going to quit, i'll kill you. i knew i was going to have to quit at some point. >> margaret was the subject of as high-profile a case as you'll ever get. >> what could drive a woman to murder? love? sex? money? well, for the woman in our next case, you're going to have to answer that question yourself. >> and she was repeatedly on "america's most wanted," and she was the black widow. right? this was the label. where is the black widow? have you seen margaret rudin? >> if you spot margaret rudin, call our hotline at 1-800-crime-tv. >> someone that she worked with saw the "america's most wanted" and said "hey, that's annette," and she called the tip line and

the police officers responded. >> so, the cops showed up at my door and said, somebody thinks you are so-and-so. and we need to see your i.d. and i had gone the day before and gotten legit arizona i.d. with my picture on it, you know? and they said, let me check it in the computer. came back and said, nothing there. and they left. i picked up my bag. called limo service, which we used at the hotel, and said, would you please pick me up at the side entrance? so, the limo took me to where i wanted to go, and i was a fugitive again. it is funny. i mean, how often could you be that lucky? >> it's time for another chapter in margaret's life on the run, and she heads east. >> but then a pizza delivery man shows up at margaret rudin's

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revere, massachusetts, is a community that's just six miles north of boston. >> it's a blue collar community, very diverse, and we have the usa's oldest beach, revere beach. >> this area was kind of known as the boston mob community. this is where they operated, in that general vicinity. >> no one asks many questions in revere. >> margaret barely makes it out of phoenix when she hears from a friend that joe lundergan needs her help. >> and joe said, i have two knee surgeries and hip surgery, and would you ask margaret if she would come take care of me?

>> margaret is able to, in revere, carve out a new life on the run. >> margaret lived in a kind of a rundown, little apartment. you had to walk up two or three flights of stairs. it was kind of grimy and dirty and dark. it was so different than her life of luxury in las vegas. >> her new name is lee brown. >> the other one was susan simmons. and she had at least two, if not three, wigs. and she wore them frequently. >> you know, it wasn't to be deceptive in any way. it's just my sense of style. >> the people of revere, they all liked margaret, right? she was real popular. >> i first met margaret back in october of '99. i'd do photocopies for her. then she would bring me in some i.d.s, and i'd laminate them for her.

and she was very pleasant, really nice. >> i really like massachusetts. i like the people. they're very honest and sincere and forthright. >> even on the run, for margaret, there's always time for romance. turns out margaret's got a new boyfriend. he's a younger guy who lives in the same building as margaret, but one floor down. >> the idea that she is the focus of an international womanhunt -- >> if you spot margaret rudin, call our hotline at 1-800-crimetv. >> but then also live a somewhat normal life is uncanny. >> but when you're on the lam, it's the little things that get you. one of margaret's seemingly mundane activities proves to be her undoing. she goes frequently to the revere post office. >> they got a tip. hey, this woman looks like the

fugitive that's being broadcast on "america's most wanted." >> they got a tip that margaret rudin was in fact mailing packages from a revere post office. so we immediately went over to the post office and showed her picture. the post office people says, yeah, that's her. that's her. and she lives right over there. >> and that's how they found me. >> november 5, 1999. the team got together and decided to position ourselves around here. >> they came up with kind of a unique sting operation to pry her out, which was a law enforcement officer posed as a pizza delivery man. >> we had officer joe pepy don a domino's shirt, a domino's hat. we all went up the stairs, gained peaceful entry, filed up the stairs to her apartment, which is on the second floor, and proceeded to knock on the door. >> when they said, "pizza man,"

and i went to joe's bedroom, and i said, answer the door. >> as soon as the door opened, we rushed in. and the first person i came to was mr. lundergan. i patted him down really quickly, shifted him, passed him to the next guy. >> they came in like gangbusters. they're coming down this narrow hallway, and they're coming in with their guns drawn. >> there's a entrance to a bathroom. we opened the door, and we see a female in there. >> all i did was step back into the door of the bathroom. and immediately, a young -- he was a highway patrol, and he was a wonderful young man. he came in and he said, are you margaret rudin? and i said, of course i am. you know i am. >> i said to her, "you know what this is about, margaret?" she goes, "yep, this is about las vegas." at that point, she was placed in handcuffs with no issues whatsoever. >> this would be a good example

of how she looked upon her arrest. and then she had all her things scattered all over the room to include wigs. and then we came across several i.d.s. she took deliberate, proactive measures to conceal her identity. >> people of revere were absolutely stunned beyond belief when it came out that she was wanted for murder in las vegas. >> this doesn't jibe with the person that i knew. the pleasantness of her, it just -- that's not something that you could hide. i don't know. i -- i tend to have my doubts. >> margaret rudin's run from the law ended in revere, indicted more than two years ago in the 1994 murder of her husband, las vegas realtor ron rudin. >> now that she's caught, she's the focus of everybody's attention. >> margaret rudin's fugitive days were over, but not her efforts to escape justice. >> and they're bringing her from massachusetts back to las vegas.

>> it sells papers. it keeps the hoopla going.s is looked like when corrections officers booked her sunday morning. >> they convict somebody before they're ever setting foot into a courtroom. >> and now all this anticipation is building as day one in the courtroom is on the horizon. >> you would be relieved, you know, to find out if, in fact, she really did it that we would find out in court. and we could see it whenever we wanted to. >> there's a lot here at stake. margaret's life is at stake. >> but would margaret's fate hinge on the testimony of a surprising witness for the prosecution -- her own sister? >> what did margaret respond? >> she said, i don't give a [ bleep ] it's time for the ultimate sleep number event on the sleep number 360 smart bed. you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. can it help me fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet. but, can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and

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you think of all that sizzle on the strip. now it's all moved to the clark county courthouse where margaret rudin is about to face trial for murder. >> march 2, 2001, it is time for the rudin trial. >> adding to the drama inside the courtroom, this trial would make its way into living rooms across america. it was put on cable television. >> good morning and welcome to "open court" here on court tv. >> i think this was the first trial to go gavel to gavel on court tv. >> state of nevada vs. margaret rudin. >> the world is watching as this woman who has been on the run, accused of murder, is now sitting in the defendant's chair. >> i did not know the magnitude until trial started. >> there's a lot riding on the case, and i remember really feeling the weight of that case. >> i've never talked about the margaret rudin case. is the state ready to proceed? >> yes, your honor. >> they hand me the file and i

says, this is going to be a tough one. >> in opening statements, the prosecution portrays margaret to the jury as a ruthless, greedy woman who will do anything to get her husband's millions. >> the evidence will show at the time of ronald rudin's death, margaret rudin was a 60% beneficiary of that properties and assets that were in that trust. >> and in comes michael amadore. >> all right, mr. amadore. >> in his opening statement, defense attorney michael amadore raises a lot of eyebrows when he seems more intent on talking about himself rather than his client. >> i could be a wonderful, caring father, coaching soccer and basketball, and helping kids with homework, doing all those things. >> it was hours of rambling and talking about himself. >> this is a great day for me.e.

>> the purpose of an opening statement is just to indicate what the evidence is going to tend to show and not go into your personal beliefs and your passion and your soccer dad. i never heard that in an opening statement in my life. >> i remember minutes into the opening statement of the defense saying to my co-counsel, hey, give me a cigarette. this thing's over. and i don't smoke. >> things started out bad, and they went to worse by the first day. >> prosecutors lay out their case that margaret shot ron to death in their house. and experts testify that they found traces of ron's blood spatter in the bedroom. >> the spatter that you saw in this case that you've described, was it consistent with what you've seen previously as well, with rarto gunshot wounds anhiocity spray? >> yes, it is.>> the cclusns th being drawn was because there was blood, therefore this had to be the place, but the place for what? >> what type of a scene was

this? >> suicide. >> could you tell the jury where that was? >> in the bedroom. >> in the middle of the trial, this astounding revelation comes to light. when the jurors learn that ron rudin's third wife peggy had actually shot herself in the head in that very bedroom. >> we found blood evidence of blood splatter. well, that was contaminated by the suicide of peggy rudin. >> that really cut a different way than they wanted to. >> as for the murder weapon, the prosecution links the gun that was found at lake mead to margaret, saying ron had reported to the atf that the gun went missing from his collection back in 1988, right at the time that margaret was moving out of the house. >> a year into the marriage when they were having divorce problems. >> that gun had turned up missing about the time that he and margaret had separated, and he believed that she had taken the gun. >> if she somehow is so clever she's kept this gun under lock and key, such that no one knows where it is, she brings it out

right to the place it could be found. that's what you have to believe beyond a reasonable doubt. >> one of the major pieces that the state honed in on was a trunk. they claimed margaret had stuffed the body in it somehow, took it out there, burned it. and now what they're trying to do is tie the trunk into margaret rudin. >> and to help make that connection, the prosecution calls bruce honabach. he's an antiques dealer who claimed he sold a trunk to margaret. >> can you tell me when it was that you sold this particular trunk to margaret rudin? >> at the very beginning of our relationship. >> so late spring, early summer. >> yes, sir. >> of 1994? >> yes, sir. >> investigators always believed margaret had help transporting that trunk and they pointed the finger at her suspected paramour, yahuda sharon. in what looks to be a major nail in the proverbial coffin of margaret's case, yehuda sharon is called to the stand as a

prosecution witness. >> yehuda. okay, check this out. they told him, we're going to charge you with the same murder that we're charging her with. however, if you flip, we'll give you total immunity. now, what's up with that? >> i know that i received immunity. from what, i have no idea. >> did you kill ron rudin? >> no, i did not. >> did you help kill ron rudin? >> no, i did not. >> did you help dispose of his body? >> no, i did not. >> did you go out to nelson's landing in december of 1994? >> no, i did not. >> it still baffles me to this day. how do you give him immunity, and you don't know what he's going to testify to? >> no charges were ever brought against sharon. >> it turns out that the attempt to get something out of yahuda sharon just fizzled. the prosecution now puts a lot of its hopes on the next witness, margaret's sister dona. >> why is it that you've testified as you have today? >> because it's the truth,

because i felt it is what i had to do. >> donna wasn't my friend. she never had been my friend. she's very difficult, and i don't trust her any further than i can throw her. >> dona testified about how she helped margaret take financial documents from ron's desk. >> donna's not finished. she tells the jury that the day after ron went missing, margaret said to her, you know, i talked to the police about ron, in the past tense. >> i said, i hope that doesn't mean that you know something. >> and what did margaret respond? >> she said, i don't give a [ bleep ]. >> and the surprises and curveballs just keep coming. early in the trial, amador drops this bombshell. >> the problem here is not a lack of diligence on the part of myself or my staff, but insufficient time to fully

prepare the entire case or the time and the funds to fully investigate and interview all of the witnesses. the issue is margaret rudin's right to a fair trial. >> astoundingly, michael amador, the defense attorney, asks the judge to declare a mistrial. >> i will also be moving to withdraw as attorney of record on behalf of margaret rudin. >> michael amadore wasn't who he said he was. one thing that i've learned over the years, you better have a voice, because you can't depend on somebody else. >> a trial is not a perfect thing. mrs. rudin has not been denied her rights under the constitution, based upon the foregoing, the motion for mistrial is denied. >> the closing act of this three-ring circus of a trial was yet to come. tom pitaro takes over as lead defense attorney, and he pulls a stunt that will make jaws drop in the courtroom again.

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the jury in this case has seen all kinds of craziness, and it's not over yet. now the defense wants to re-create the actual crime scene in the middle of the courtroom. >> a whole body would have to go this way to get the head now facing the back. >> the idea was to demonstrate to the jurors that the prosecution's theory was not correct. >> the defense team's novel courtroom exhibit seems to fall flat when judge bonaventure is clearly not amused. >> i'm going to caution the jury that you were wrong doing that! >> it's unfair to mrs. rudin.

>> listen to me, you better not start yelling at me, mr. pitaro, i made a ruling and it sticks. i sort of blew up on that. i says, this is the most ridiculous thing. it was a circus. >> well, you know, he got upset a few times, but that's what he gets paid for. >> after over nine weeks, the prosecution and the defense finally rest in one of the longest trials in vegas history, sending jurors off to deliberate. >> the real nasty down-and-out fight doesn't happen in the courtroom. the real fight starts in the jury room. >> i'm ron vest. i was the foreman on the margaret rudin/ron rudin, millionaire murder trial. >> ron vest. yeah. um, very overbearing, but he was very angry because he actually felt on that first day of

deliberation that he'd be home by dinner. according to ron, this case was a slam dunk. and it really wasn't. >> this thing was a slam dunk with a stepladder. i mean, it just was. when you start adding up who had the means, the motive, who had the opportunity to do it, there's only one person. and then we had the lone holdout. she couldn't point to evidence as to why margaret didn't do it. and we're all ears. what do you got? >> there was no direct evidence against margaret. there were no forensics. there was nothing. and i thought to myself, oh, great, there's your reasonable doubt. we went through six days of deliberation where i was not budging. >> the foreman wanted me to dismiss juror number 11 because she was the only holdout, i and i says, no, her actions weren't such that she needs to be excused. and if it's going to be a hung jury, so be it. ms. rudin, will you stand up, please? have you arrived at a verdict?

>> yes, sir, we have. >> it was a packed courtroom. cameras were rolling. there was a lot of suspense because the jury had been out for quite a while. >> oh, it's tense. it was really tense. >> i can remember standing up and reading the charges. i said on the count, "murder in the first degree we find the defendant," and i can remember pausing briefly and symbolically. we find the defendant guilty. >> then the verdict was read, you hear somebody's sobbing. that was me. because i caved. and all i could do was look up at tom pitaro and margaret rudin and mouth, i'm sorry. i'm very ashamed of myself that i let that happen. it was the biggest regret of my life. it really is. >> and when they came back saying guilty of all counts, i was -- i was surprised. i was surprised at that. >> juror number 11 should have stuck to her guns. >> when she came out guilty, you know, we were all relieved that

she was going to go to prison. >> margaret rudin was looking at me when i said guilty, because i know she did it. and she didn't even blink. >> it was a block out. it's sort of like when the cops came to tell me about ron. then your mind goes, i can't take anymore. i don't know how to take it. >> i sentence you life sentence with possibility of parole after >> none of this ever had to happen. what no one really knew at the time except for a handful of people is that margaret rudin was offered plea deals. multiple times. >> there had been so many issues with regards to the trial itself that we were concerned about what would happen with appeals. >> "they" being the prosecution were going to give her credit for time served. >> i think i even told her, another year, year and a half, you'd be out of custody. she didn't hesitate one bit.

oh, no, judge. i'm innocent. i'm not taking any deal. i can't plead to something i didn't do. >> five times i was offered a plea deal. i never considered it. i'm not going to admit it. i don't care if i'm 110 and i'm still waiting. i'm not going to admit to something i didn't do. >> and that takes a lot of chutzpah. >> even afterwards, one of the prosecutors came up to me and said, i'll still give it to you. >> dumbfounded. dumbfounded. that she rejected the offer. >> okay, then. maybe she is innocent. wow, margaret. i honestly don't know what to say to that. i really don't. that's unbelievable. >> she went out to the florence mcclure prison out in the smiley road. it's on the outskirts of las vegas. >> smiley road. who would put a women's prison on smiley road? what a sense of humor. >> she wasn't being broken by

the system. she had a belief that she was going to get through it. >> it hardens you. you know, the only way you can bear a lot of the things is you have to only think about what's good still. >> one person who reached out to margaret in prison was holdout juror coreen kovacs. she had befriended and written margaret during her long prison stint. >> the catalyst for me was i needed to -- i needed to personally apologize to this woman for what i felt was, um, my fault. you know, the travesty was my fault. >> as the years went by, there were lingering questions of whether or not she got a fair trial. >> this was a [ bleep ] show. it was just terrible. should she have received a fairer trial? yeah, she could have received a fairer trial and better defense

counsel, but what do you do? >> in 42 years, that is the worst trial that i've ever had. the only regret i have, should i have allowed a mistrial in the very beginning because of mike amadore? it might have had a different outcome for margaret rudin. >> but now, 20 years after her conviction, could unsolved mysteries about ron rudin's death finally lead to margaret's name being cleared? >> there were four sets of footprints, muddy footprints in the car. they never established whose footprints they are. there's all sorts of questions. who were the four people in that car? >> this case is still pending. i don't know if you know that. tune in for the next chapter. >> she wants to prove she did not do it. wow. t-mobile is upgrading its network at a record pace. we were the first to bring 5g nationwide. and now that sprint is a part of t-mobile we're turning up the speed. upgrading over a thousand towers a month

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even behind bars, margaret rudin was insistent she was innocent. she files an appeal to have her conviction overturned on the basis of ineffective counsel. >> first of all, after my trial, it was in front of another judge, and she heard the evidence and said, yeah, as ineffective assist to counsel, i'm going to grant this and grant a new trial. well, there you go. >> but then two years later the nevada supreme court reversed that decision over a legal technicality. >> i was just looking at the ninth circuit court of appeals website, and someone involved in murder in las vegas, and i thought, well, that looks kind of interesting. i just started getting mad, and i started reading it over again,

because i couldn't believe it. so i went out there and met her, and then i agreed to represent her if she got a new trial. >> there's no fingerprints, dna, no forensics that puts her at the crime scene. she's not stupid enough to kill ron rudin in the bedroom of their home, put him in a trunk from her antique store, haul him out, and burn him and leave him. >> i would really like to be able to exonerate my name. yes, i have the energy to sit through another trial. innocent, i would be proven innocent. >> margaret appealed again, and the case is currently pending waiting for a federal judge to make a ruling on whether she gets a new trial. why are you convinced that she didn't do it? >> because the physical evidence just doesn't add up. they didn't have a strong enough lead defense attorney to challenge all the evidence that was admitted at trial. >> mullanax says one of those key pieces of evidence is the murder weapon. remember, prosecutors made the case that ron had reported the gun missing back in 1988, and that margaret had taken the gun and used it to kill him.

>> she had an opportunity to take the weapon in '88, and she probably just kept possession of it for all those years. >> there's no evidence that the gun is the same gun. there's no serial number of this gun being reported missing. >> the state says there's a letter that implies that margaret took the gun when she moved out of the house. what do you say to that? >> well, i've got the letter right here, and ron rudin wrote it back in 1988. and he says that he has a suspicion that the gun was packed away or taken by person or persons unknown during my wife's packing her furniture and personal belongings for storage. >> so, it could have been anybody? >> it could have been anybody. he had hundreds of guns in that house. >> another key piece of evidence that mullanax says helped sway the jury was that burned out antique trunk that contained ron's remains. remember, an antique dealer testified he sold a trunk to rgt unk to marret rudin?hen it was u >> right at the very

benng of -- well, at the very beginning of our relationship. >> so, here we got a guy that supposedly sold her the trunk. to me that was one of the bigger factors in the conviction. >> it turns out the guy who originally sold the witness that trunk came forward after watching him testify on court tv. >> the person says, hey, man, i did not sell that trunk to him. i sold him something else. >> yes, i remember a small case that would carry roller skates in. he said, that's it. i said, bruce, that little case is too small to put a cadaver in. >> but the jury didn't hear from that man until after the defense had rested. mullanax contends by that time what he had to say was ineffective. and when we asked the jury foreman about that testimony, he told us he doesn't even remember it. >> this is the first time hearing of this. you know, when you sit there for over two months and you have what you think are all the facts presented at the time, you don't like to hear later that the que "i sold her that trunk," has been debunked.

you don't like to hear that. >> mullanax says there are also a lot of mysteries about ron's murder that remain unanswered a quarter of a century later, including the riddle of what was found inside ron rudin's abandoned cadillac. >> there were four sets of footprints, muddy footprints in the car. they never established whose footprints they are. >> they also found clothes in the trunk of the car. those clothes were never tested fo instead of answering questions, they raised more questions than answers. >> back then, dna was different than it is today. bring it out. you've still got to have the proof somewhere. bring it out. let's have it under dna standards today. >> even former prosecutor gary guymon says that there were investigative avenues that weren't fully pursued, like that huge lee canyon real estate deal rudin was working on that was set to close just days after he went missing. >> yeah, i always believed there was fodder in the lee canyon

business dealings, but it never got developed. just seems like there's so much left in the process. >> he was involved with some very wide assortment of not-so-nice people. and when they found the body out there at the lake, i mean, for me, that just kind of had mob written all over it. >> i just hope that the court in las vegas would order a new trial and that this matter could be settled. the chances, i don't know. it's up to a judge right now. >> okay, but this is vegas. would you say the odds are in your favor? >> i would say the odds should be in our favor, because remember margaret was granted a new trial back in 2008. >> infamous convicted killer margaret rudin, dubbed the black widow of las vegas, has just been let out of prison. >> margaret rudin's life is about to change drastically. what lies ahead does not involve handcuffs, bars, or prison guards. >> oh, my god, more than one time did i say to her on the phone,u going to get out, and

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>> reporter: infamous convicted killer margaret rudin, dubbed the black widow of las vegas, has just been let out of prison. she's been locked up for the past 20 years for the brutal beheading and murder of her millionaire husband, ron rudin. >> waiting to greet margaret, holdout juror coreen kovacs. she had befriended and written margaret during her long prison stint. >> wow. hi. >> am i going to get to see you later? >> that was wonderful. it was high time. but you could see tha a

'cause this was a very -- she's a very pretty woman. >> after her release, margaret moved back to the chicago area. now she's 77 years old. >> the world had changed. life had changed. my children had changed. i'm living alone for the first time probably in my life. it's a serious adjustment. i knew nothing about facebook or smartphones or computers or the way of life that's just so taken for granted now. >> she's a great-grandmother now. she's spending time with her daughter, her granddaughter, her great-granddaughters. >> and now if i had my life to live over again, i would stay right here in illinois and never, ever have subjected my kids or myself to vegas. all of the things that influenced my life as i got into the relationship with ron rudin.

i miss him. i look at the pictures now and think, i wish he was here. >> i wish i had more pictures. these are his younger years. how happy he was. i just thought of him up in heaven with my husband. >> i think because of the details of the murder, how heinous it was and because it was motivated by money, by greed, that personally, i think she should have stayed behind bars. >> i did not kill ron. and i have no fear of meeting god and saying, i did not. i am not going to have my children or my grandchildren live with that. look at her. her mother did it.

i don't care what you think. i don't care what you think. i don't care what you think. god and i know. margaret ruddin's request for a new trial is still in front after a federal court. she's been waiting four years for a decision. >> she's now 77 years old. she still hopes to clear her name. do you think she deserves a new trial? let us know. >> in the meantime, that is "20/20" for tonight. for all of us here, thanks for watching. i'm david muir. >> i'm amay robach. have a good night. s e. remember this? high school sports in the bay

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