Doris Angleton

Doris Elizabeth Angleton (née McGown; (also Beck) April 11, 1951 – April 16, 1997) was an American socialite and murder victim. Her husband, Robert Angleton, had been accused of planning the crime. Roger Nicholas Angleton, Robert Angleton's brother, admitted to directly killing his sister-in-law and exonerated his brother before killing himself.

Doris Angleton
Doris Angleton
Born
Doris Elizabeth McGown

(1951-04-11)April 11, 1951
DiedApril 16, 1997(1997-04-16) (aged 46)
Houston, Texas, U.S.
Cause of deathGunshot wounds
NationalityAmerican
Other namesDoris Beck
Alma materUniversity of Texas

Early life

Doris Elizabeth McGown was the first child born to Alfred Randolph McGown, a Dow Chemical engineer, and his wife, Ann McGown (née Bain). She grew up in Lake Jackson, Texas, and had one sibling, a younger brother, Steven Randolph McGown. She graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in speech pathology. After graduation, she began a career as a schoolteacher, and later became a sales representative for a pharmaceutical firm.[1]

Marriages

In 1976, McGown met William Beck, a representative for an office products company. They married and moved to Clear Lake City. She met Robert Angleton, a successful bookmaker, at a bar in the Houston West Loop when she was 28 years old. According to Robert Angleton, he and Doris met because William Beck, Doris's husband, was a client of his bookmaking business. Both Robert Angleton and Doris Beck, although already married, were attracted to each other, eventually divorcing their spouses. They married in 1982. On August 1, 1984, Doris Angleton gave birth to twins, Nicole and Alessandra.[2]

Robert Angleton earned an estimated $2 million a year by running a sports-betting scheme. He managed to do this by becoming a police informant and reporting his rivals to the Houston Police Department.[3] He moved his family to the wealthy River Oaks area of Houston, Texas.[2]

Although her friends believed that she was happy, Doris Angleton had reportedly told others that she wanted out of her marriage when she started talking to others in online chat rooms and beginning an online and then in person affair with a new boyfriend from New Jersey. In February 1997, she went ahead with the divorce process, seeking 50 percent of their joint assets. Robert had offered her half of his purported estate or 1.5 million dollars. Doris suspected more wealth existed and threatened to go to the Internal Revenue Service to expose Robert in an attempt to gain more of his estate during the divorce. [2]

Murder

On April 16, 1997, Robert Angleton expressed concern when Doris failed to show up for their twin daughters' softball game. After the game, he drove the girls home and finding the door ajar, called the police. An officer discovered Doris' body. She sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the face and chest.[3]

Around the time of her murder, Doris' brother-in-law, Roger Angleton, had been arrested in California on unrelated charges. He missed his court date in that case (which was April 16, 1997). He was stopped at the DFW Airport 5 days later with two guns in his luggage but fled before being arrested. Police searched the abandoned suitcase that revealed him to be her killer. Roger was found by police in the Las Vegas city jail, having been arrested for providing false identification to police. He died after cutting himself in a Houston prison cell[2][4] more than fifty times with a disposable razor. He left behind a suicide note that cleared his brother of the murder of Doris Angleton.[5] Robert Angleton was later found not guilty in his wife's death.[6]

Angleton's income was investigated. As it was earned via an illegal sports betting scheme, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted and jailed Robert Angleton. While awaiting trial, Robert fled to the Netherlands, where the Dutch government apprehended him. A Dutch court ruled that he could not be extradited on a charge related to the murder of his wife because he had already been found not guilty. However, they ruled, he could be extradited on the tax evasion charges.[6]

He was subsequently convicted of tax evasion and passport fraud and was sentenced to twelve years in prison. He was incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island in San Pedro, Los Angeles. He was released on January 27, 2012.[7]

References
  1. Smith, Carlton (1999). Death in Texas. Macmillan. pp. 56–57. ISBN 0-312-97075-7.
  2. Smith, Carlton (July 15, 1999). Death in Texas: A True Story of Marriage, Money, and Murder. St. Martin's True Crime.
  3. "The Bookie's Wife". cbsnews.com. 2002-06-10. Archived from the original on 2010-10-28. Retrieved 2009-05-16.
  4. "The Bookie's Wife"; CBS News; June 10, 2002
  5. McCabe, Scott (April 15, 2012). "Crime History: Socialite wife of Houston bookie found dead". Washington Examiner.
  6. Robert Angleton to be extradited from the Netherlands, abc13.com; accessed December 6, 2014.
  7. Robert Nicholas Angleton profile Federal Bureau of Prisons website; retrieved February 7, 2012.
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