On 22nd October 1993, 52-year-old Gerald Boggs was found murdered in his Steamboat Springs, Colorado home. Soon police had a solid suspect: Boggs’ ex-wife, Jill Coit. The two had been married a mere seven days before Boggs got the marriage annulled due to the fact that Coit was still married to someone else.

In addition, Coit was in the process of suing Boggs for the deed to a bed and breakfast they co-owned when he was murdered. Even though Coit produced an alibi, corroborated by a boyfriend, police soon discovered that she was not the innocent she painted herself to be. Coit had been married ten times, sometimes committing bigamy, and a few of her former husbands had died under mysterious circumstances.

After an investigation into Coit’s shady past, police arrested her and charged her and Backus with murder on 23 November 1993. Their trial began almost two years later in February 1995. The prosecution’s key witness was Coit’s son Seth, who testified that his mother had told him she killed Boggs. The defence produced a surprise witness who claimed to have seen Gerry Boggs alive during the time at which the prosecution said he was killed, but the jury didn’t buy it.

Jill Coit, who later became known as ‘Colorado’s Black Widow’, was convicted of first-degree murder on 17 March 1995 and sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 48 years for conspiracy charges. Coit’s appeal was denied in 1997.