- FEMALE NARRATOR: For one divorcee,
extravagant south Florida was the place to get a fresh start.
- VALERIE: She wanted to live the exciting life in Miami.
- JACLYN: She received half of the proceeds from the house.
She used that money to live in a hotel on the beach.
- She liked the high life.
- NARRATOR: While she lived her dreams
in the Sunshine State, a stunning crime
from her hometown threatens to upend her new life.
- GLEN: They found two bodies there, a man and a woman.
- TIM: The victims had sustained shotgun blasts.
- NARRATOR: As investigators race to catch a killer,
a seedy underbelly comes to light.
- JD: They had an infatuation with the Mafia lifestyle.
- JACLYN: He tells them his name is now
"Anthony Machetti".
- VALERIE: His initials would be AIM, which would be really,
kind of cool if you're a hitman.
- NARRATOR: And investigators will uncover
a savage plot driven by ambition and greed.
- ALAN: She would con anybody into anything
to try to reach her goal.
- VALERIE: She's screaming at us, "hold him, hold him."
She destroyed all of us.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: August 31st, 1974.
On this calm, summer afternoon in Macon, Georgia,
a local pilot decides to take some guests out
for a short flight.
- TIM: He had just gotten engaged
and he was showing his new bride-to-be
what the area looked like.
- NARRATOR: Once in the air, the pilot gets a view
of something he never expected.
- GLEN: We got the phone call reporting a pilot seeing a body
beside a car.
- TIM: They were shocked so he circled around again
and then flew to the airport and called
the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.
- NARRATOR: The pilot informs police
that the body is in a new neighborhood
under construction on the north side of Macon.
The situation becomes more severe
when police arrive on the scene and discover
not one dead body, but two.
- GLEN: Two patrol officers arrive first, the supervisor
and then the deputy riding with him,
and they found the two bodies there, a man and a woman.
- TIM: There was a shotgun blast to the chest of the male
and to the head of the male.
Inside the vehicle, with her legs sticking out,
was a woman and she had been shot in the head.
One of the deputies put his hand on the hood of the car
to try to determine how long the bodies had been there.
The hood was still warm.
So, they knew it had happened very recently.
- JACLYN: Ray Wilks came up on the scene.
He was the, the sheriff and he knew the victims.
So, they were identified very quickly.
- GLEN: The two victims were newlyweds
from Macon, Ronnie and Juanita Akins.
Juanita Akins had taken a blast across her arms,
trying to block the shotgun blast.
So she obviously saw it coming.
- ALAN: Ronnie was just a super guy
and for this to happen to him and his new wife, Juanita,
was just unbelievable.
- NARRATOR: Born in 1936, Joseph Ronald Akins,
more commonly known as "Ronnie",
grew up in Athens, Georgia with his three brothers.
- VALERIE: My dad was the second of four boys.
They were a very close-knit family.
- NARRATOR: Ronnie was a jack of all trades
who loved to fix things.
- VALERIE: My dad was into everything.
If anything broke, people would bring it to my dad
even as a small child to fix, and he usually could.
He was smart.
And when he wanted to do something, he did it.
- NARRATOR: Ronnie attended Athens High School
where he caught the attention
of 16-year-old Rebecca "Becky" Turpin.
- VALERIE: My dad was two years ahead of her,
but I understand they were in some of the same clubs.
So, they became friends and started dating.
- NARRATOR: Like Ronnie, Becky had also been raised
in Athens.
- She was an only child until she was 14,
and her mother and father had a little boy,
but she didn't talk about her childhood too much.
- Becky was always an outgoing person.
She could always get along with you very easily
and talk up a blue streak with you.
- NARRATOR: By 1956, Becky was a high school senior,
and Ronnie worked as a local TV repairman.
It was an easygoing time for the hometown couple
until life had other plans.
- JACLYN: She got pregnant.
She finished her senior year, but immediately after that
they got married.
- NARRATOR: The couple and their young daughter,
Vicky, settled in Macon.
There, they built a home and eventually welcomed
two more daughters into the world.
- VALERIE: My older sister was 10.5 months older than me.
So, my mother had two children under one.
So, we grew up kind of like twins.
We were very close.
My younger sister, Vanessa, was born three years later.
- NARRATOR: Becky settled into life
as a stay-at-home mother, while Ronnie worked hard
to provide for his wife and daughters.
- VALERIE: He got a job with Southern Natural Gas.
He would go out and repair pipelines.
He was on call pretty much 24 hours a day,
and then he became a part-time disc jockey
at WLDN in Macon,
and he worked the midnight shift.
His handle was "Lonesome Ronnie", and they loved him.
- NARRATOR: When Ronnie wasn't working,
he devoted himself to his three daughters.
- VALERIE: He worked a lot, but when he was home,
he was with us, and he was doing something with us.
He would take us fishing.
He would take us flying.
We would play baseball.
We would have cookouts.
My dad was probably one of the best fathers
you could have.
- NARRATOR: Ronnie and his daughters remained close
over the years.
The same couldn't be said about Ronnie
and Becky's marriage.
- VALERIE: My mom always wanted to have the best stuff
in the neighborhood, and my dad gave her everything
that he could, but it was just never enough.
They got to the point where they weren't really speaking
to each other.
- NARRATOR: Sadly, after 17 years of marriage,
in the fall of 1973, Ronnie and Becky
finally called it quits.
Desperate for a fresh start, Becky set her sights
on the posh beaches of Miami, Florida.
- VALERIE: She wanted to live the exciting life in Miami.
Which, we'd really only seen on television.
But she felt like that she could have a better life
there.
- JACLYN: Becky took the girls and moved to Miami.
The house sold, and she received
half of the proceeds from the house.
She used that money to live in a hotel on the beach.
- VALERIE: As much as I missed dad,
my life was pretty good.
We were beach bums, so yeah, everybody,
everybody was happy.
- NARRATOR: It wasn't long before Becky found
new love in the arms of a man
named John Eldon Smith.
- TIM: He was from West Deptford, New Jersey.
And he managed a family insurance business.
He had been on vacation in Miami.
And on his last night of vacation
he met Rebecca Akins.
- So, they dated a little while and,
and next thing I know they were getting married.
- NARRATOR: Though they had only known each other
for two months, on July 24th, 1974,
John and Becky tied the knot.
- ALAN: They had a very elaborate wedding.
Fancy everything.
We had filet mignon.
I've never had filet mignon before.
It was very ritzy.
- NARRATOR: Back in Macon,
38-year-old Ronnie Akins didn't have to wait long
for love when he met 29-year-old Juanita Knight.
- VALERIE: My Uncle Bill introduced my dad
to Juanita.
She was a schoolteacher up in that area.
They dated a few times and clicked.
They began a relationship, and the next thing you know,
they got married.
As far as I was concerned, my dad had hit the jackpot
with Juanita.
The way she looked at him, she absolutely adored him.
- NARRATOR: But their marital bliss
was short lived.
Now, after only three weeks of marriage,
police are standing over the bodies
of both Ronnie and Juanita Akins.
- JACLYN: They found the body of Ronald Akins
lying next to his car on the pavement
and his wife's body, Juanita's body,
inside in the front passenger seat.
- They noticed a radio in the vehicle, uh,
with the handset dislodged, and it appeared
that Juanita was radioing for help at the time
that she was murdered.
- NARRATOR: As for Ronnie,
it's clear he had been shot first
in what appears to have been an ambush.
- He was down on the ground, face down.
He had actually been shot in the back.
- GLEN: There were no indications of robbery,
the money, wallet, valuables were still with the victims,
so it was just plain murder.
- NARRATOR: While the attack was certainly vicious,
investigators discover a clue that suggests
it was not at all random.
- GLEN: The investigators found a note
with directions to the scene in the male victim's pocket.
That indicates that the victim was lured out there
under some pretense to the crime scene.
It wasn't some happenstance.
It was planned.
- TIM: They just could not imagine
who would harbor any ill will toward Ronald
and Juanita Akins.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: twisted allegations
begin to surface.
- JACLYN: She claimed he was a drug addict.
She claimed he dealt drugs, that he was involved
with criminals
- GLEN: When any serious crime happens,
and you don't have a real suspect,
the first thing you do is look at who benefits.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On a sweltering summer evening
in 1974, authorities in Macon, Georgia,
have just found key evidence
in the shocking double shooting of newlyweds,
Ronald and Juanita Akins.
- TIM: Police found a paper in Ronald Akins' pocket,
which had the address of the crime scene.
So, they knew that he had been lured there
by somebody.
- NARRATOR: Neither a weapon nor shells
are found at the scene.
But investigators do find another
potentially important clue on the victim's sedan.
- TIM: There were palm prints
on the hood of the car.
And there was a palm print on the door of the vehicle.
- NARRATOR: While the prints are lifted
and taken into evidence, investigators fan out
to interview the few residents
of the sparsely populated neighborhood.
- JACLYN: The people who lived in those houses
had seen Ronnie's car, the white car
and a few minutes later a green Gremlin car
had come through.
- They also described hearing gunshots
and then they also saw the Gremlin leave.
- NARRATOR: The green, compact car
was hard to miss and grabbed the attention
of several neighbors in the area.
One couple in particular, is able to describe
what they saw in those fleeting seconds.
- There were two men in the green Gremlin.
- TIM: Two white males.
That was the description that was given
by the witnesses.
Investigators knew they had to put out a bulletin
for this green Gremlin that had a stripe on its side.
- NARRATOR: With the search for the car
in full swing, CSI's focus on the palm prints
found on Ronald Akins' white sedan.
- TIM: A member of the Georgia State Crime Lab
from Atlanta came down and secured the latent print
off the door, secured the other palm prints,
and they were then able to identify all of the prints
as being the victims', except for the latent print
on the door.
- GLEN: In the 1970's, we didn't have
the computer systems to match all these.
You really needed to identify a suspect first.
- NARRATOR: In order to identify potential suspects,
investigators first speak to the victim's families,
starting with Juanita's.
- GLEN: In any investigation, you start with those
closest to the victim and work your way out
because there aren't that many, relatively speaking,
stranger to stranger murders.
- NARRATOR: Juanita's family says
they never saw any signs of trouble in either her
or Ronnie's life.
- ALAN: Juanita was a very nice person.
I don't know if she ever had an enemy in the world.
She was just like Ronnie.
She was friends with everybody,
and everybody liked her.
- NARRATOR: Police must now notify
Ronnie's ex-wife, Becky, and their three teenage
daughters.
Ronnie's daughters are heartbroken by the news.
- VALERIE: I felt grief, I felt fear, um...
I felt like that my life would never be the same.
- TIM: Investigators started focusing
on the former spouse as a first order of business,
simply because that's fairly routine
when there's a murder case and there's been
a recent divorce.
- NARRATOR: According to Becky,
she and her children have resided in Miami
for the past four months and she claims
she hadn't been anywhere near Macon, Georgia
on the day of the murder.
- TIM: Rebecca was very clear
that she had nothing to do with it, no knowledge
and she had all kinds of tidbits, like receipts
from the restaurants she ate at.
- JACLYN: When they interviewed Becky,
they discovered that she had recently remarried
John Eldon Smith, and they ask about his whereabouts
when the crime was committed,
and Becky told them that he and his friend John Maree
had gone on a fishing trip that weekend.
- NARRATOR: Becky then shares information
with investigators suggesting Ronnie
was not the hard-working family man
people thought he was.
- TIM: She launched into a tirade
about how terrible her former spouse was.
- JACLYN: She told them that Ronnie
had been involved in drugs in Macon.
- NARRATOR: According to Becky,
one such incident took place in October of 1973
when she claims Ronnie overdosed
in the family home.
- JACLYN: She said he had friends from work
when he didn't show up for work that morning,
come and see what was wrong
because they couldn't raise him on the phone.
And they looked in the windows and saw him.
- TIM: They had to go through a window
in the house, and they found him lying on the floor.
He was actually blocking the door, completely incoherent.
- JACLYN: They called an ambulance,
and he was resuscitated, and he was taken
to a hospital.
When Becky showed up at the hospital,
she told them that he was on drugs
and that he had been out of his mind,
and they put him in the mental health ward.
- NARRATOR: Becky claims Ronnie's overdose
had been the final straw.
- JACLYN: She said she filed for divorce
and that's how the divorce came about.
She claimed he was a drug addict.
She claimed he dealt drugs, that he was involved
with criminals in Macon.
- NARRATOR: Astonished by Becky's account,
detectives dig into her accusations.
- GLEN: I never heard anything supporting that
at all.
There was just absolutely nothing said
from a credible source that backed that up.
- NARRATOR: In fact, those closest to Ronnie
claim his alleged overdose the previous year
had been completely unexpected.
- JD: When we heard from Becky
that Ronnie had overdosed, uh, it came as a shock to,
to all of us.
- VALERIE: My father had nothing to do with drugs,
my father did not drink.
My dad was never involved with anything like that.
- NARRATOR: With Becky's allegations
being in stark contrast to what detectives learn
about Ronnie's lifestyle, their focus changes
to Becky's alibi for the day of the murders.
- JACLYN: Her daughter Valerie's boyfriend,
Alan Barfield, had come down for the weekend,
and he had been there all weekend.
- NARRATOR: On September 3rd,
detectives reach out to 23-year-old Alan Barfield.
- ALAN: When I got back from Miami to Macon
I immediately drove down to the courthouse right then
and, uh talked to the sheriff and I just re-accounted
my whole weekend.
- TIM: Rebecca had asked him to come down
because he wanted to marry Valerie
and Rebecca wanted Alan to get
John Eldon Smith's approval.
- VALERIE: I was scheduled to go to Macon, Georgia,
and spend the weekend with Alan.
At the very last minute, my mother decided
Alan needed to come to Miami.
So, he changed all of his plans.
He flew into Miami.
- NARRATOR: But when Alan arrived
on August 31st, there had been a change of plans
yet again.
- TIM: Alan was told John Eldon Smith
was on a fishing trip with a man named
John Maree, and this trip was the very day
that the murders occurred.
- NARRATOR: Alan confirms Becky's alibi,
but recalls a strange detail when John Eldon Smith
and his friend returned home
from their fishing trip.
- ALAN: They came in, and there was no fish,
there was no fishing poles, there was nothing.
It just, something was weird.
It was just real fishy.
It just wasn't right.
Something didn't add up.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: cracks begin to show
in Becky's new top-shelf lifestyle.
- TIM: Becky was fascinated with gambling
and thought that was a glamorous life.
- ALAN: Of course they lost more than they made.
- TIM: They knew she was hurting for money.
- NARRATOR: And investigators uncover
a potential love triangle.
- JD: Becky had met John Maree
and had basically had an affair with him.
- VALERIE: My mother still wanted, for some reason,
John Maree in the picture.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: After speaking to Alan Barfield,
Georgia investigators rech out
to the North Miami Police and share the information
they've learned about 42-year-old John Eldon Smith
and 35-year-old John Maree.
North Miami detectives locate both men
for interviews and begin with John Eldon Smith,
who now goes by a new name.
- JACLYN: The Investigators were able to speak
with John Eldon Smith first and he tells them,
"Yes, he and Becky have just married
"and that he has changed his name.
"That his name is now 'Anthony Machetti'.
That he goes by 'Tony'."
- TIM: He kept insisting that his name
had legally been changed to Anthony Israldo Machetti.
The investigators were puzzled if you will
by the change in names.
- NARRATOR: Tony explains that the name change
had been Becky's idea.
- VALERIE: My mother decided
to live the Miami life the fullest,
she needed to be Italian and she could become rich.
When she was tan, she looked Italian.
So she would become very tan,
that's what she wanted and she felt like
that the mafia uh, hung out at racetracks and bars.
I don't know whether that was from something
she saw on television, I don't know whether
that was from something that she read.
But she decided that's who she wanted to be
and she went for it.
- ALAN: Becky decided she wanted to make her family
look like they were in the Mafia
and they were Italians' it was just her image
that she wanted to put out there you know.
- NARRATOR: But for now, investigators
are more concerned about Tony's whereabouts
on the day of the murders.
- JACLYN: He tells them, yes, he and his friend
John Maree were on a fishing trip that weekend.
- NARRATOR: Tony tells investigators
that aside from some R&R, he and John
were actually scouting locations
to potentially build a hotel.
- He said that he had took some fishing poles.
But the main purpose of the trip was not fishing.
It was a business trip.
They just drove around looking at development sites.
- NARRATOR: In another room,
John Maree explains to investigators how he met
Becky shortly after she moved to Miami.
- She liked this bar.
She met John there, and that's how they connected.
And what drew them close was John gambled
at the dog tracks.
Becky was fascinated with gambling and thought
that was a glamorous life.
- NARRATOR: John says he and Becky
had a fling up until she hooked up with Tony.
- JD: Becky had met John Maree
and had basically had an affair with him.
- VALERIE: When my mother decided she was going
to marry John Eldon Smith, who later became
Tony Machetti, she still wanted for some reason
John Maree in the picture.
So, she pushed John Maree into a relationship
with my 17-year-old sister.
- JACLYN: He turned his attention to Vicky,
and Becky encouraged that.
- NARRATOR: With the case growing more bizarre
by the minute, investigators ask John
about his recent road trip.
- TIM: Maree readily says, "I was driving
"because John Eldon Smith was intoxicated.
"He was drinking the whole time.
"We slept in the car.
"We ate in the car.
"We drove around looking
at business development sites."
And he said that he did not go fishing at all.
- NARRATOR: Investigators make on more request
before they wrap up the interviews.
- TIM: The investigators asked John Maree
if they could take his fingerprints and palm prints.
John Maree readily agreed.
John Eldon Smith also consented
and they obtained his prints.
- NARRATOR: With no other reason to hold them,
and no evidence against them,
police are forced to let both men go.
Meanwhile back in Macon, investigators
are already trying to unravel an important piece
of this puzzle: motive.
- GLEN: If a spouse murders a spouse,
or an ex-spouse often times, life insurance policy
is the motivation.
Get the money.
- NARRATOR: Investigators place a call
to Ronald Akins' employer.
- TIM: They learned through Southern Natural Gas
that Ronnie had a $53,000 employer sponsored policy.
Immediately after the divorce, he had changed
the beneficiaries for half of that policy to go
to his three daughters and half of the policy
to go to his parents.
- NARRATOR: Although this appears to rule out
the money as a motive, Ronald's daughters
were all minors, so the control of that money
would likely flow to one person
in the event of their father's death.
- The money that the girls would receive
would be Rebecca's.
They would not have any say whatsoever in those funds.
- GLEN: When any serious crime happens,
and you don't have a real suspect,
the first thing you do is look at who benefits.
- NARRATOR: When detectives delve
into Becky's bank records, they quickly realize
the Machetti's are in financial turmoil.
- TIM: Rebecca spent way above the means
of the Akins family.
She was hurting for money.
- ALAN: Becky liked the high life.
She liked to party.
She and John Maree would go and play the horses.
Of course, they lost more than they made.
- NARRATOR: Investigators believe
that there is clearly a greedy motive
behind Ronnie and Juanita's tragic killing.
But first, investigators must somehow directly connect
their three suspects to the crime scene.
- JACLYN: They thought that all three people
were involved.
They didn't know exactly how;
they didn't know who did what.
- TIM: Police did not have a firearm,
they did not have shells, so there was no
ballistic evidence which you often have in a murder case.
Investigators knew they needed some link
to the crime scene.
- NARRATOR: However, investigators are still waiting
on the results of one piece of forensic evidence.
- JACLYN: There was a palm print on the car;
a palm print with fingerprints that did not belong
to Ronnie nor Juanita.
- TIM: The investigators were able to determine
that the latent print on Ronnie Akins' car matched
the palm print of John Maree.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: investigators must decipher
if Becky's new persona is a cultural affinity,
or a deadly obsession.
- JACLYN: It was a fantasy that they were real excited
about.
He could earn $50,000 for a single hit
if he got on with the Mafia.
- TIM: Anthony Machetti was going to become
a mafia hitman.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Days after the shotgun slayings
of newlyweds Ronald and Juanita Akins,
investigators have just discovered pivotal evidence
against one of their three suspects: John Maree.
- GLEN: At the crime scene when they processed the car,
they found a latent fingerprint on the driver's door.
There was absolutely no question
it was John Maree's print.
- NARRATOR: Detectives head back
to the neighborhood where the crime scene
had been spotted, this time armed with photos
of John Maree and Tony Machetti.
- TIM: Multiple witnesses were able to identify
the two subjects as the people in the vehicle
and particularly they'd identified John Maree
as the driver of the Gremlin.
And so that really gave the icing on the cake
for the investigators.
- NARRATOR: Investigators know there is only
one link between the two men and Ronnie:
Becky Machetti.
- TIM: They knew obviously that she was behind this,
that this guy from New Jersey, this other guy
from Fort Meyers, didn't just happen upon
these two people in Georgia.
- NARRATOR: Investigators obtain arrest warrants
for Tony, Becky, and John on October 16th, 1974.
- VALERIE: As we approached our house
there were cops everywhere.
They grabbed Tony Machetti, threw him in a police car.
And my mother's screaming that she's gonna sue them,
and you know, all kinds of horrible things,
and we're just crying because we don't know
what's happening.
- NARRATOR: The alleged co-conspirators
are taken into custody and transported back to Macon
where all three refuse to talk.
However, after a few weeks behind bars,
John Maree gets antsy.
- He said he wanted to talk about this incident,
this murder.
And so, that was arranged.
He waived his rights, and he essentially gave
the entire factual story start to finish
of how these murders occurred.
- NARRATOR: According to John,
the beating heart of this conspiracy centered
on Becky's obsession with all things Italian.
- JD: Becky had an infatuation
with Italian lifestyle and especially the Mafia lifestyle.
- JACLYN: It was when the Godfather movies
were coming out, and she was fascinated by the Mafia,
and she thought the Mafia was in Miami.
- NARRATOR: According to John,
Becky and Tony didn't just change their names,
they wanted in the mob, and Becky had a plan
to make that happen.
- John Maree then told the investigators
that one of the motives behind this
was that Anthony Machetti was going to become
a mafia hitman.
- JACLYN: She was telling him that he could become
a hitman and that he could earn $50,000 for a single hit
if he got on with the Mafia.
It was a fantasy that they were real excited about.
- NARRATOR: Tony's new name was carefully chosen
for the initials.
- JACLYN: She convinced him
that he had to change his name
to Anthony Israldo Machetti which sounds like a hitman
and is an Italian sounding name.
- VALERIE: His initials would be AIM,
which would be really, kind of cool if you were a hitman.
- NARRATOR: In order to get in with the mafia,
Becky believed that Tony would need
to prove himself first.
- TIM: For him to become a made hitman,
that the mafia would trust and accept,
he would have to do a killing and get away with it.
- NARRATOR: Becky settled on Ronnie as Tony's victim,
a hit that came with an added benefit.
- ALAN: She thought she would get
some insurance money from a policy he had,
and the girls would collect Social Security.
- VALERIE: John Maree had been promised $1,000
to just drive Tony to Macon, Georgia,
and then drive him home.
- NARRATOR: On the night of August 30th,
John says the two men made the 8.5-hour drive
to Macon, Georgia without stopping.
According to John, Becky came up with the idea
of luring Ronnie to an isolated location.
- JACLYN: They drove around trying to figure out
where they were going to do the killing.
They finally found this location in a subdivision
which was under construction.
- NARRATOR: John says Tony placed the call
to Ronnie at 3PM.
- JACLYN: He said he was someone
who was buying a house in a subdivision
that was under construction and needed some advice
on a television antenna and would Ronnie
meet him there, and Ronnie said yes and took down
the address.
- NARRATOR: When Ronnie showed up,
Tony and John were waiting.
But Ronnie wasn't alone.
- JACLYN: Juanita was not part of the plan.
She was just along for the ride with her husband.
- TIM: Anthony Machetti got his shotgun,
and he grabbed it out of the vehicle,
and he shot both of these individuals.
- [gunshots firing]
- TIM: He picked up the shells, put the shells
in his pocket and that's when they hopped
in the Gremlin and drove off.
Maree and Machetti drove as fast as they could
to get out of Georgia.
As soon as they cross the state line,
they stopped at the first gas station they saw,
called Rebecca in North Miami and he told Rebecca,
"I bagged two fish."
- ALAN: Becky was very, very manipulative.
She would con anybody into anything
to try to reach her goal.
I have never seen anybody that could manipulate people
like she did.
- TIM: The investigators at that point
knew they had enough evidence to secure warrants
charging the two gentlemen
with first-degree murder
and to charge Rebecca with conspiracy to commit murder,
two counts.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: new revelations
cast a grim shadow on the past.
- VALERIE: She called Vicki and I in to hold him down.
That was probably the worst memory of my life.
- NARRATOR: And Becky doesn't go down
without a fight.
- TIM: Becky's whole defense was,
she was completely innocent, she knew nothing about this.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Two months after the murders
of Ronnie and Juanita Akins,
investigators now believe their murders
were a trial run for Becky and Tony Machetti's
future life in the mob.
- Becky was obsessed with all things mafia,
and really hoped to get into that lifestyle,
and she came up with the idea of her husband
becoming a member of the mafia, being a hitman.
- NARRATOR: But when investigators look into
any real ties between the Machetti's
and organized crime, they come up empty-handed.
- JACLYN: There was never any involvement
between Becky and Tony and the Mafia.
You don't just change your name
and go knock on their door and volunteer to be a hitman.
- ALAN: It was just this dream world
that he fell into her trap, is all I can say,
both of them did.
- NARRATOR: In 1975, all three co-conspirators
go to trial for the murders of Ronnie and Juanita Akins.
- JACLYN: There were three separate trials.
Just everybody pointing fingers at each other.
When the verdicts came back, all three
were convicted.
Tony was convicted of murder
and was given the death sentence.
John Maree was convicted of murder
and I believe was given life in prison.
And Becky was convicted of murder
and given the death penalty.
- NARRATOR: Becky's attorneys fight back.
And after eight long years behind bars
the 45-year-old gets an unexpected victory
when her appeal goes before the 11th circuit court
in Atlanta.
- JACLYN: Her conviction was overturned
because there were not enough women
in the jury pool from which her jury was selected.
- NARRATOR: Almost ten years after
her initial conviction, Becky's retrial begins.
- TIM: We had the same witnesses, basically,
that we have in the original trial, but there was,
there were a couple things we needed to cover
that were not addressed in the first trial.
- NARRATOR: Prosecutors call Becky
and Ronnie's daughters, Vicky and Valerie,
to the stand.
In shocking testimony, the young women reveal
that their father's alleged 1973 overdose
was actually Becky's first attempt on Ronald Akins' life.
- TIM: Rebecca had provided a milkshake to him
which contained a mildew remover
or some type of bleach cleaner
along with the ice cream.
- JACLYN: He drank the milkshake.
And then more or less passed out,
and the girls remember Becky calling them,
screaming for them to come to her room
in the middle of the night.
- NARRATOR: Valerie claims their mother
wanted help finishing what she'd started.
- VALERIE: She tried to smother him,
and she called Vicki and I in to hold him down.
That was probably the worst memory of my life
because we didn't want to do it,
but she's screaming at us, to hold him,
hold him and we did.
And Dad was fighting, and we didn't know what to do.
- TIM: It was just heart wrenching,
just heart wrenching.
She made the girls Vicky and Valerie
hold down their father's legs, while she,
who had already drugged their father
with a laced milkshake, held the pillow
over their father's head.
When this assault occurred on Ronnie,
Rebecca called the police, uh, she alleged
that the father was a danger to her and the children.
- VALERIE: The police came.
He was wobbly, and he looked like somebody
that was on drugs.
The police believed her.
We weren't allowed to say anything.
We were afraid of her at that point.
- NARRATOR: After Vicky and Valerie's
gripping testimonies, John Maree takes the stand,
detailing the events around the brutal murders
of Ronnie and Juanita.
- JACLYN: Maree was a very convincing witness.
John Maree's testimony was the key to their case.
- TIM: Becky's whole defense was,
she was completely innocent,
she was in Miami the whole time,
she knew nothing about this.
That's what her defense boiled down to.
- NARRATOR: For the jury, the evidence speaks louder
than Becky's claims of innocence.
- TIM: They found Rebecca Machetti guilty
of two counts of conspiracy to commit
first degree murder.
The jury sentenced her to two consecutive life terms.
Becky Machetti wound up doing in excess of 30 years
in prison before she was released on geriatric parole.
- NARRATOR: Becky spends the last decade of her life
back home in Athens, Georgia.
- VALERIE: My mother until her dying day
never admitted anything even though she knew we knew.
My dad, he was just a good guy.
It's sad the way she destroyed all of us.
Vanessa, we're estranged from each other.
I mean, my older sister died.
And we were really close the last two or three years.
But when she died, that was it.
So, there is no family, really.
And it's all because of Rebecca Machetti.
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