Bizarre murder-swap plot

Press, 9 June 1978, Page 6

Bizarre murder-swap plot

NZPA Washington! “I’ll kill your wife, you! kill mine.” That bargain, struck by co-workers at a computer firm, led to the death of a young woman and her infant daughter. Both were brutally stabbed to death in the kitchen of their home. Their killer appeared in court this week and what emerged was a drama so bizarre that the judge in the case said he had seen nothing like it and wished the law would allow a more severe penalty. The conspiracy involved two computer technicians, both aged 28. One wanted his wife dead so he could live with another woman. The other wanted to collect

! a $lOO,OOO life-insurance pol- ' icy on his wife. 1 i! According to court testi- i mony from a Government r r investigator, Lon Lewis ■ offered Gene Meyer $3OOO in c i March last year to kill ; Lewis’s wife and daughter, s ■ Meyer offered to perform 1 • the murders for nothing if c Lewis killed Mrs Meyer. < One warm September e : evening six months later,is > Lon Lewis arrived home inlc ! Bowie, Maryland, to find the! • bloody bodies of his wife, 1 , Carol, aged 27, and their < 4-month-old daughter, Heath- i er, on the kitchen floor, t according to court docu- t ments. Lewis called the I I police. | 1 A month later, Lewis and r Meyer confessed to the mur-l ; der-swapping plot. Meyer!J

was convicted on April 26. Lewis was convicted on murder charges exactly one month later. Even that was not the end of the dramatic murder case. At what started as a routine sentencing hearing in nearby Upper Marlboro, Maryland, on Tuesday, Meyer sat calmly, and dispassionately as he was sentenced to consecutive terms of life plus 30 years imprisonment. Suddenly, he paled as the Deputy State’s Attorney called forth a tall, tanned man from among the spectators. The man was introduced as Captain Frank Mazzone, a slick, experienced undercover policeman. “Mr Meyer knows Mr Mazzone, but not by that

, name,” the prosecutor ani nounced to a stunned court-[ j room. The prosecutor told the I judge that Captain Mazzone,! posing as a lawyer, had vis- i ited Meyer in jail and Meyer; ■ had solicited him to kill I . more people — Meyer’s : wife, again; two local police-1 men involved in his arrest ■ and interrogation; and his co-conspirator, Lon Lewis. Meyer allegedly offered to • pay Captain Mazzone • $40,000 to murder or arl range for the murder of Meyer’s wife, presumably with the money to come ; from the $lOO,OOO insurance policy. Lewis was imprisoned before he carried out his half of the original bargain. Mrs, : Meyer was not harmed.