Married to Murder: The Bizarre and True Accounts of People Who Married Murderers (4 page)

Rosalie Bolin met her future husband while working on the defense of one of his murder cases as a public defender. Bolin is famous in Florida and beyond for being tried and convicted of the same murder, that of Natalie Blanche Holley, at least three times. Twice in 1991 and 1999, Bolin was sentenced to death for Holley’s murder, but both cases were overturned on appeal. In 2005, another jury found Bolin guilty of second degree murder and sentenced him to life for the same crime.

Bolin is now trying to get the third conviction thrown out with the help of Rosalie, who is a death penalty mitigation specialist. In other words, she has the perfect job for the spouse of a notorious serial killer. Bolin received the death sentence for the rape and murder of two other women, Stephanie Collins and Terri Matthews, in 1986.

Unlike most serial killer wives who tend to be obscure and keep a low profile, Rosalie Bolin is something of a celebrity in her own right. She is an experienced lawyer who was part of the defense team for Casey Anthony, the Florida woman who became a celebrity after her daughter’s suspicious death.

Rosalie is also the regional director of the Florida Capital Resource Center. Her biography on the center’s website paints a picture that is very different from that of the average serial killer groupie. Bolin is a successful business woman who owns at least two businesses, Able Court Reporting and Criminal Special Investigation Inc. Her biography claims that she has been involved in 700 murder cases in all 20 counties in the state of Florida. Her expertise is even recognized by the Federal Courts, which appointed her to a federal death penalty case in the Middle District of Florida.

In 1995, Rosalie Martinez sacrificed both her marriage to a prominent attorney and her job at the Hillsborough County public defender’s office for Oscar Ray Bolin. She spent so much time on Bolin’s defense that her bosses at the defender’s office fired her. Rosalie then made headlines by marrying Oscar Ray Bolin in prison on national TV.

Rosalie first met Oscar in 1995 when two guards with shotguns escorted her to his cell on Florida’s death row. Prison authorities were not taking any chances with Oscar because they considered him an escape risk and knew him to be a smooth talking conman. Rosalie, who was scared at first, began to feel sorry for his isolation and loneliness.

Rosalie Martinez left a very comfortable and affluent lifestyle for Oscar Ray Bolin. Her husband, top criminal defense attorney Victor D. Martinez, is a member of one of Tampa’s oldest families. He was a country club member and the owner of a $375,000 home in an exclusive suburb. His wife drove to the prison to meet Bolin in a Mercedes.

Oscar Ray Bolin came from a very different background; he was a former drifter, carnival worker, small drug dealer, and truck driver who had grown up in trailer parks in the Midwest. Before getting arrested for murder, Bolin had also pleaded guilty to raping a woman at gunpoint.

Rosalie Bolin is now a very hated woman; an internet search on her will reveal such blogs as
Rosalie Bolin the Liar
. Bolin has apparently posted blogs online attacking another inmate on Florida’s death row named Mike Lambrix. Rosalie apparently created the blog to attack Lambrix because he or somebody working with him had created a blog called
Bolin the Butcher
that attacked Bolin and posted the autopsies of his victims online.

This wasn’t the first example of unusual behavior from Rosalie Martinez. During one of Bolin’s trials, she gave him Brooks Brothers underwear to wear. When prison guards wouldn’t let Bolin wear it, he tore up his prison issue underwear. During her first attempt to defend Bolin, Rosalie spent so much time with him, her husband won custody of her children.

In recent years, Rosalie’s daughter, Katherine Martinez, has tried to defend her mother with a YouTube video. The documentary tries to show Rosalie as a good woman and understand her point of view. It cannot be found on YouTube anymore, but it attracted some attention when it first came out.

So why did Rosalie Martinez marry Oscar Ray Bolin Jr.? The most likely answer is for love and to escape her upper middle class life. Michael
Halkitis, who successfully prosecuted Oscar Ray Bolin, had a different theory; he called the killer a Ted Bundy type who had the ability to mesmerize women.

That ability apparently didn’t work on a woman who had actually lived with Oscar Ray Bolin, his ex-wife. In 1992, she testified against Bolin at his second murder trial. Another witness against Bolin at that trial was Bolin’s own stepbrother, Phillip.

Rosalie Bolin still lives in Tampa and works at her court related businesses. She isn’t an attorney as some news articles have indicated, but she is a successful businesswoman. Even if she loves Bolin, it’s doubtful she’ll ever get to live with him. He is still awaiting execution on Florida’s death row and trying to avoid the death penalty through legal maneuvers.

Bolin the Butcher . "Bolin the Butcher ." 12 July 2007.
bolinthebutcher.blogspot.com.
Blog entries . 2013 25 January .

Burrage, Greg. "Wife of Oscar Ray Bolin Jr., Rosalie Bolin is on Casey Anthony defense team." 12 May 2011.
abcactionnews.com.
News Article . 25 January 2013.

Carlton, Sue. "A glimpse of the daughter whose mom married a serial killer ." 4 June 2011.
www.tampabay.com.
Tampa Bay Times Newspaper Column. 25 January 2013.

Clary, Mike. "Fool for Love?" 16 September 1996.
articles.latimes.com.
Newspaper Article . 25 January 2013.

Daily Mail Reporter . "Woman who left lawyer husband to marry serial killer suports murderer at his latest trial for 1986 fatal stabbing." 17 April 2012.
dailymail.co.uk/news.
Newspaper Article . 24 January 2013.

Florida Capital Resource Center . "Rosalie Bolin." n.d.
floridacapitalresourcecenter.org .
Professional Biography/Resume. 25 January 2013.

If his life had progressed normally, Erik Galen Menendez would have been a good catch for any woman. After all, he was the son of a rich and successful businessman from Beverly Hills. Those who meet him report that Erik is polished, charming, and deeply religious; he even leads Bible studies.

The problem is that Menendez is serving life in the California state prison system for the cold-blooded murder of both his parents. On Aug. 20, 1989, Erik and his older brother, Lyle, entered the family room of their Beverly Hills mansion and blew away their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, with a shotgun. The wealthy couple had fallen asleep on the couch while watching a videotape of
The Spy Who Loved Me
, and they never got up.

The Beverly Hills shotgun murder became a national media sensation, and Lyle and Erik became national celebrities. Their fame was heightened by two murder trials and their sensational claim that they had murdered their father because he was abusive.

One of the millions watching the Menendez brothers on TV was a widow named Tammi Saccoman. She started writing to Erik and eventually drove across the United States to meet him at the historic Folsom State Prison near Sacramento. Tammi, whose doctor husband had just died, had a one-year-old child at the time.

Tammi
started visiting Erik and eventually married him on June 3, 1999 in a prison conference room. Incredibly, the guests at the wedding included Erik’s grandmother and two of his aunts. The refreshments at the ceremony were hardly up to Beverly Hills standards, and the wedding cake consisted of Twinkies from a vending machine.

Tammi
Menendez has told interviewers that she thinks her husband is a sensitive man. Unlike most women who marry imprisoned killers, she believes he is guilty, but she thinks he was given an unfair sentence. Tammi apparently believes the Menendez brothers’ claims that they feared their abusive dad.

The circumstances of the murder throw a lot of doubt on the claims of abuse. At the time of the shooting, Lyle Menendez was 21 and Erik was 18. Both were old enough to move out of the house and get away from their father. They also targeted their mother as well as their father.

A more likely scenario is that the brothers were trying to kill their dad before he could change his will and cut them off from the family fortune. Lyle had already been accused of stealing from fellow students in his dorm at Princeton.

Erik and Lyle were already successful criminals by the time of the murder. They had allegedly burglarized homes in their old neighborhood in Calabasas, Calif. and stolen jewelry with an estimated value of more than $100,000. Police even discovered some of the stolen property in Erik’s car.

Erik was hardly the sensitive man that Tammi claimed he was. Not only was he on track to becoming a professional criminal, Erik was also probably a liar. Friends and family with knowledge of Erik’s personal life believe that he is gay.

Erik and Lyle’s criminal activities were so blatant that Jose Menendez, then an important entertainment executive, decided to move his family to Beverly Hills. Jose had tried to cover up his sons’ crimes by hiring a high priced defense attorney and paying off their victims with cash. He hoped the move to a new neighborhood would restore the family’s reputation. For their new residence, the couple purchased a $4 million home that had once been owned by Elton John. That was where the murder eventually took place.

Tammi didn’t see any problem with Erik; some press reports indicate that she even stopped dating a doctor to be with him. She apparently believes Erik’s claims to be reformed and a spiritual man.

When she was 10 years old,
Tammi’s daughter Talia told
People
magazine that she considered Erik Menendez her “earth dad.” That is apparently in contrast to Talia’s real dad, who died when she was a one-year-old child. Tammi also tried to help out her sister-in-law, who had married Lyle Menendez. She and Lyle’s wife even lived together for a while, but broke up.

Erik and
Tammi Menendez’s relationship will never be consummated because of prison rules banning conjugal visits for murderers. Instead, Erik spends most of his time in his cell. Erik’s lawyer claimed that his client answers hundreds of letters that provide counseling to victims of abuse. Menendez has also reportedly led Bible studies behind bars and read many New Age books on spiritualism.

Prison officials have even labeled Erik Menendez a model prisoner. Whether his behavior is that of a reformed man or a psychopath trying to beat the system is hard to determine. It’s likely that Erik will never get out because he was sentenced on two counts of first degree murder with no possibility of parole.

One person still believes in Erik Menendez, Tammi, and media accounts indicate that she drives 150 miles to see her husband every weekend. The two still maintain a long-distance love affair nearly 14 years after their marriage began.

ABC News . "Tammi Menendez on Loving Erik ." 27 September 2002.
abcnews.go.com .
Online Article . 26 January 2013.

Hewitt, Bill. "Life & Love Behind Bars ." 7 November 2005.
www.people.com.
Magazine Article . 26 January 2013.

Pergament, Rachel. "The Mennedez Brothers ." n.d.
trutv.com/library/crime .
Online Encyclopedia Article . 26 January 2013.

Kristin Svege had four children by a man who sounds like a real life Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Charles “Tex” Watson. In the late 1960s Charles “Tex” Watson was Charles Manson’s lieutenant for killing. In that capacity, Watson led the Manson Family death squad that killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate and three others.

Ten years later Watson reinvented himself as a born again Christian and even became an ordained minister and assistant pastor at the California Men’s Colony prison. During that period, on September 7, 1979, Watson married 20-year-old Kristine
Svege on the lawn at the Colony.

Svege
had been writing to Watson from her native New Jersey. She eventually crossed the country to marry her pen pal and dream man.

The most incredible thing about Tex Watson was that he was able to father four children by Kristin
Svege while serving a life prison sentence for his crimes. Watson did this by taking advantage of a bizarre loophole in California law. In 1971, then Governor Ronald Reagan, a legendary law and order conservative, created a conjugal visit (sex with prisoners) program to encourage “family values.”