Carlton Smith - In the Arms of Evil: A True Story of Obsession, Greed, and Murder

Dear Reader:

The book you are about to read is the latest bestseller from the St. Martins True Crime Library, the imprint The New York Times calls the leader in true crime! Each month we offer you a fascinating account of the latest, most sensational crime that has captured the national attention. St. Martins is the publisher of Tina Dirmanns VANISHED AT SEA, the story of a former child actor who posed as a yacht buyer in order to lure an older couple out to sea, then robbed them and threw them overboard to their deaths. John Glatts rivetting and horrifying SECRETS IN THE CELLAR shines a light on the man who shocked the world when it was revealed that he had kept his daughter locked in his hidden basement for 24 years. In the Edgar-nominated WRITTEN IN BLOOD, Diane Fanning looks at Michael Petersen, a Marine-turned-novelist found guilty of beating his wife to death and pushing her down the stairs of their homeonly to reveal another similar death from his past. In the book you now hold, IN THE ARMS OF EVIL, acclaimed author Carlton Smith unveils a true story of fraud, deception, greedand cold-case murder...

St. Martins True Crime Library gives you the stories behind the headlines. Our authors take you right to the scene of the crime and into the minds of the most notorious murderers to show you what really makes them tick. St. Martins True Crime Library paperbacks are better than the most terrifying thriller, because its all true! The next time you want a crackling good read, make sure its got the St. Martins True Crime Library logo on the spineyoull be up all night!

Charles E. Spicer, Jr.

Executive Editor, St. Martins True Crime Library

Other True Crime Titles From

CARLTON SMITH

The Prom Night Murders

Poisoned Love

Mind Games

The BTK Murders

Vanished

Cold-Blooded

Reckless

Death of a Doctor

Shadows of Evil

Hunting Evil

Bitter Medicine

Murder at Yosemite

Death in Texas

Dying for Daddy

Death of a Little Princess

Seeds of Evil

Available from the True Crime Library of
St. Martins Paperbacks

Carlton Smith

NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book.

IN THE ARMS OF EVIL

Copyright 2010 by Carlton Smith.

Cover photograph courtesy Masterfile Royalty-Free.

All rights reserved.

For information address St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

EAN: 978-0-312-94802-3

Printed in the United States of America

St. Martins Paperbacks edition / April 2010

St. Martins Paperbacks are published by St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

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Grifternoun A person given a concession with a circus or
carnival to run a freak show or refreshment stand, or operate
a game of chance, etc.
Britannica World Language Dictionary, 1956

Grifternoun A confidence trickster or fraud artist,
thought to be an Irish-American slang
amalgamation of the words
grafter and drifter
From ca. 1915

It is often said that gambling is a disease, and so it is. Where many people believe that gambling is a moral viceand it isfew perceive its truly pernicious effects for the truly consumed. Like alcohol or drugs for the most afflicted, the lure of chance is often something from which some people simply cant walk away. Just say no was a great slogan, but it doesnt begin to address the underlying compulsions that drive people to make bad, even fatal choices, whether for drugs, sex, alcohol or money. Who among us hasnt known someone who has succumbed to one or more of these?

Gambling can be particularly seductive. The exultation, the personal validation that winning bringsthe highcan seize a soul as surely as the purest heroin. And the losingin gambling, the house always has the edge, which means that sooner or later, even the luckiest winner has to losecan drive a human being to the most desperate of choices.

Even murder.

This is the story of Nancy Jean Siegel, a beautiful woman who succumbed to the lures of the God or Goddess of Chance, certainly a Devilish illusion, if statistics have any validity. By the time Nancy was tapped outmorally, at least, if not yet financiallya man was dead, and Nancy was facing the prospect of dying of old age in a federal penitentiary, far away from those she held most dear. The road of Nancys life was filled with many twists and turnsmany choicesbut at almost every critical juncture, she chose the wrong path. She cheated her husbands, her friends, her own childrenbut most of all, herself. And even as she sat in the dock, accused of murder, almost everyone who knew her said they loved her still.

Nancy Siegel wasnt born evil, or evil incarnate, as some people like to characterize others. The Devil didnt creep into her mothers bed one night to spawn her. She wasnt Rosemarys baby. Nancy just got herself in a jam, admittedly all of her own doing, and then things went from bad to their ultimate, dreadful worst. Evil wasnt thrust upon her, nor was it in her stars. She did it to herself, by her choices, as Shakespeare intuited, by her own free will, and it could have happened to anyone who lost sight of what was truly important.

Even you and me. So we should all put down our stonesand maybe think a little about where evil comes from. Does it come from outside? Or is it in ourselves, and if so, why? Ethical people want to know.

Selah.

The late model black BMW had been on the road for more than an hour. Its driver had taken the turn-off from I-70 at Frederick, heading southwest on Route 340 toward West Virginia. It was dark, the traffic sparse for the time of night, around 10 P.M. The BMW crossed the bridge over the Potomac River just east of Harpers Ferry, on the way to the racetrack and slot machine emporium at Charles Town. There, where three different states had their borders within a minute-and-a-half, the BMWs driver decided to stop and do what she had come to do. Just over the bridge over the river, within eyesight of where John Brown and Stonewall Jackson had once made the name of Harpers Ferry known to everyone in America nearly a century-and-a-half before, she pulled off the highway into a deserted wayside. There she turned off her engine and lights, and got ready to undertake the biggest gamble of her life.

At length, she got out of the car, then opened the back door. The old packing trunk was heavyit weighed almost as much as she did. Somehow, though, she got it out. It fell to the dirt with a heavy thud. Fortunately, it had wheels along one side of its bottom. She dragged it toward the edge of the wayside, where there was an enclosed trash container. The wheels of the trunk left clear tracks in the dirt. She left it next to the trash can.

It was now just another piece of the past, something that, once out of sight, would be out of mind. It was the way she thought about life in generalalways think ahead. Dwelling on the old never did anyone any good. She got back into the BMW and drove away, old anxieties floating away to make room for new ones that would soon settle in. But at the time, they were little worries, not big ones, and they were easier to tolerate than those that had chafed her too long to be borne. Out with the old, in with the newthat was the way to survive. Like Scarlett OHara, for Nancy Jean Sweitzer, tomorrow was always another day.