- FEMALE NARRATOR: Rugged good looks
made him leading man material.
- He was in shows like "Gunsmoke"
and did some actual western movies.
He was kind of a big deal.
- JAMES T: He'd purportedly dated Rita Hayworth
for a little while.
He was known for having known
a lot of actors and famous people.
- NARRATOR: Long after his Hollywood career faded to black,
he played the role of hero to this small-town Nevada girl.
- He was more than 30 years older than her.
- He came in and swooped up and--and you know saved her.
- He was interested in wining and dining her.
- NARRATOR: But her Hollywood hero
is met with a sudden tragic ending.
- [gunshot]
- There were four bullet wounds.
One to the chest, one to the chin
and one in each eye.
- It looked like an execution style murder.
- She believed that he was involved with the mafia.
- NARRATOR: When all leads run dry,
police embark on a decades long search
to uncover a plot far darker
than anything conjured on the silver screen.
- They actually start plotting
what they're going to do.
- It snowballs into a plan for murder.
- NARRATOR: When a family secret is finally revealed,
the cold case breaks wide open.
- PATRICK: He just didn't think
that he deserved to get away with this crime.
- [gunshot]
- In the end, justice is going to find you.
- ♪
♪♪
- NARRATOR: September 30, 1985.
It's just after midnight when a call comes
into the Yuma, Arizona, Police Department.
The caller is local resident, Phil Carey,
who's just left the home of his neighbor and friend,
former Hollywood star, Jimmie Ferrara.
- Phil made a call to 911
and described the scene that he'd found.
He found Jimmie Ferrara, in his house.
Blood everywhere, blood under his body.
He was very upset, of course.
- [police sirens]
- PATRICK: So they send out
investigators and police to the home,
and when they get there,
they find that the back door is ajar.
They go inside...
and they find Jimmie in the middle of the floor.
- He's in a hallway with like part of his body
going into like a kitchen area and then a living room area.
- PATRICK: They see a lot of blood
around his chest and head area.
Something is horribly wrong.
- NARRATOR: 65-year-old Jimmie Ferrara
is pronounced dead at the scene.
Based on the type of injuries, there is no question
as to how Jimmie died.
- LORI: We could tell that he had been shot multiple times.
It appears that somebody just came up
and boom, boom, boom right into the head.
It was done with anger.
- JAMES T: There were four bullet wounds.
One to the chest, one to the chin,
and one in each eye.
- NARRATOR: Based on the crime scene,
investigators are certain that this was anything but,
a random act
- JAMES T: There was no signs of forced entry.
It didn't seem as if burglary was a motive
because it didn't seem like anything was missing.
Jimmie's body still had his wallet on it.
He still had jewelry on him.
- LORI: There were .22 caliber casings
that were on the floor.
They actually found four of 'em, three in the beginning
and then once they moved the body
they found the fourth one laying underneath.
- ANDREW: Beyond that,
they were not able to glean much from the crime scene.
There was very little of evidentiary value
that could lead them to a suspect.
- LORI: We don't have any suspects to go on right now
so we're going to have to use investigative skills
to go out and try to figure out who did this.
- NARRATOR: Born in New York in 1920,
Jimmie Ferrara was a first generation American
whose parents came to the United States
in search of a better life.
- Jimmie's parents came over from Sicily in 1910.
They settled in New York.
The Italian culture is pretty important to our family.
- NARRATOR: After Jimmie was born,
the Ferrara's traded the east coast for the west coast.
- When the Ferraras moved to Sacramento,
they were definitely blue collar.
My grandfather worked for Southern Pacific Railroad.
My grandmother stayed home.
Having eight children, I'm sure she was quite busy.
- NARRATOR: As the fifth of eight kids,
Jimmie was determined to make a name for himself,
with his eyes set on fame and adventure.
- Jimmie did do a stint
in, uh, the coast guard for a couple of years.
Then he wound up getting into acting in like the 1940s.
And he was in shows like "Gunsmoke"
and then he got into some western movies
and kind of a big deal back then.
- I saw short skits of "Gunsmoke,"
and I thought they were very good.
He was very proud of his things he was in.
- He had purportedly
dated Rita Hayworth for a little while.
He was known for having known
a lot of actors and famous people.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Behind the scenes, Jimmie's personal life
was as exciting as his budding acting career,
with a series of whirlwind romances.
- Jimmie's first wedding was in 1942,
and he married an actress and dancer
by the name of Kathleen Cartmill.
That only lasted a couple of years
and then he married Carol Gallagher,
who was also an actress.
That lasted a few years.
After that, he married Margaret Bartlett.
That only lasted one year.
Then he married a lady by the name of Leona.
- NARRATOR: By the early 1960s,
Jimmie's acting career was fading.
He and Leona looked toward the future
and invested the money he had earned in Hollywood.
- PATRICK: He tries his hand at owning ranches.
He has real estate, owns a--a bar.
Uh, he starts making his money in other ways,
other than acting.
And he splits his time between Los Angeles and Yuma, Arizona.
- NARRATOR: After 19 years of marriage and no children,
Jimmie and Leona divorced in 1976.
- PATRICK: So, Jimmie is a single man at this time
and he decides to take a trip to Reno, Nevada.
And there at a motel,
he meets a woman by the name of Delma,
who is about 30 years his junior.
And they really hit it off.
- NARRATOR: Born in 1952, Delma was raised
in the rural town of Hawthorne, Nevada.
In her early 20s, Delma married
and became an instant mother to her husband's three sons.
- I was about three or four years old.
And, uh, I took to her,
you know, right off the bat.
- NARRATOR: Delma focused on caring for her stepsons.
But behind closed doors, her marriage was unbearable.
- DEAN: There was more bad times than happy times
with her and my father.
My father was, uh,
verbally abusive and physically abusive.
She told me she was leaving. She couldn't take it anymore.
And that she loved me.
And, uh, she was sorry that she had to leave.
- NARRATOR: Looking for a new lease on life,
25-year-old Delma was living in Reno
when she met 57-year-old Jimmie Ferrara in 1977.
Despite the 30-year age difference,
she was instantly attracted to him.
- PATRICK: Jimmie still had
his studio good looks at the time.
He definitely acted like he had a lot of money.
He loved flashing big bills of cash around
and loved to be the life of the party.
- JAMES T: Delma was drawn to that
and wanted to be part of that.
When Jimmie came along,
she saw this flashy confident man
that could get her away from her bad situation.
- LORI: She was really struggling for money.
Jimmie kind of came in
and swooped up, and saved her.
- Jimmie was more than 30 years older than her,
at this point in his life, he was quite wealthy.
None of the men
that she had dated up to that point,
had really offered her this stability that she needed.
- NARRATOR: Jimmie convinced Delma
to return to Yuma with him
where they dated for several years
and ultimately tied the knot in October of 1981.
- Jimmie and Delma decide to set up shop
in Yuma, Arizona.
They move into a nice suburban neighborhood,
Jimmie was interested in wining and dining her.
Things seem to be going great.
But after a few years
of Jimmie and Delma being together,
their relationship started to sour.
They both had incredibly fiery personalities.
They had a lot of fights.
They definitely were at each other's throats.
- NARRATOR: In 1984, Jimmie and Delma
decided they needed to put a little distance between them.
- When Jimmie and Delma separated,
Delma had gone back to Nevada for, you know, several months.
- Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
The two were separated,
but they got back together in 1985.
- NARRATOR: To celebrate their reprised role
as a happy couple,
Jimmie and Delma planned a romantic road trip.
- He was preparing the RV to go on this trip with her.
It was a second honeymoon.
- So Delma and Jimmie had taken a couple month trip.
They were actually going to go up to Nevada,
and then kind of up to Oregon, and go many different places.
- JAMES T: This was a chance for them
to try to mend their relationship,
to get things better from where they had been.
- NARRATOR: The couple returned to Yuma
after a two-month journey on September 28,
with their love reignited.
But after being home for less than 48 hours,
Jimmie now lies dead in a pool of blood
inside the couple's home.
- Detectives first looked at Jimmie Ferrara's body
in the middle of the living room,
and they could tell
just from the blood that was pooling
that this crime had happened pretty recently.
- LORI: We learned that Jimmie was married.
So, the main thing we wanted to do
was we need to find his wife.
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
Investigators finally track down Jimmie's wife,
and she drops a bombshell.
- She was asked, "Did you kill your husband?"
- She had actually thought about killing Jimmie.
- NARRATOR: But are they on the wrong path?
- They thought maybe it was a jealousy thing
or, uh, a love triangle.
- LORI: We know that she visited Jimmie,
and she was potentially the last person
to actually see Jimmie alive.
- ♪
- FEMALE NARRATOR: Rugged good looks
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On September 30, 1985,
detectives in Yuma, Arizona, are investigating the murder
of former Hollywood star,
65-year-old, Jimmie Ferrara.
- They found Jimmie Ferrara's body
lying in the hallway of his home,
and he'd been shot
several times in the head and upper torso.
- NARRATOR: Outside, investigators get
more information from Phil Carey,
the neighbor who called 911 after finding Jimmie's body.
- JAMES T: Phil told the police that Delma and Jimmie
had just gotten back from a long RV trip.
And he had stopped by that very morning to say hi
and see if maybe he could watch some TV with Jimmie.
- LORI: Phil said, it just kind of
seemed like uh, a normal day.
Later on, at approximately 11:30 p.m.,
Phil receives a phone call from Delma.
Delma is not at home. She is up at a relative's house.
She's worried about Jimmie, because apparently,
he had like some chest pains or wasn't feeling good that day.
She has called multiple times,
she's getting the answering machine,
she's not getting through.
So she calls Phil, asking if he could go over
and check on Jimmie.
And that's when he found Jimmie in the house,
then called the police.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Phil tells investigators
that 33-year-old Delma is just a couple of miles away
at the home of Jimmie's niece, Pam Denman.
- Investigator's arrive at Pamela Denman's house
and they find Delma, and it is there
that she asks them, "Is Jimmie okay?"
And the investigators had to deliver the terrible news
that her husband had been killed.
- She, um, was pretty hysterical at--
learning from the officers that Jimmie had passed away.
- NARRATOR: When Delma begins to calm down,
detectives ask her about the hours before the murder.
- Jimmie and Delma just returned to Yuma
after a two-month vacation in Nevada.
- The day after they got back,
she said Phil had come over to watch the football game
and then a woman by the name of Sally Cook came over.
- NARRATOR: Delma admits she was less than thrilled
to see 19-year-old Sally.
- LORI: She's a younger lady, younger than Delma.
Somebody that Jimmie's kind of taken under his wing
to like acting classes
and just to help out in--in general.
Um, Sally is also
thought to have had an affair with Jimmie.
- NARRATOR: According to Delma, sally's behavior that morning
only heightened her suspicions that there was perhaps more
to Jimmie and Sally's friendship.
- JAMES T: Sally asked where Jimmie was,
Delma told her that he was taking a shower,
so she goes back into the bedroom
while he's taking a shower. Delma doesn't go in there.
- Delma said that Jimmie had multiple girlfriends
throughout the time that they'd been together.
So she was kind of used to it.
- NARRATOR: Delma tried to shrug it off
but admits that, later that afternoon,
she and Jimmie got into an argument.
- JAMES T: Delma told the police
after the fight with Jimmie, she left the house.
She wanted to get away from him and clear her head.
So, she started walking around the neighborhood.
- PATRICK: At one point, she circled back around
towards the home and saw Sally Cook's car
outside of the home and Jimmie's car gone.
- NARRATOR: Delma admits the sight of Sally's car
still being at the house made her more angry.
- She decides that she's not
going to go back to the home yet.
She didn't want to enter that situation.
And so she turns around, does some more walking
and ultimately ends up
at her niece Pamela Denman's house.
- NARRATOR: The story forces detectives
to ask the obvious question.
- We did ask Delma if she killed her husband,
she said no.
She was also asked, you know, did she know
who might want to kill her husband?
Again, she said she didn't know.
- NARRATOR: After speaking with Delma,
detectives question neighbors
to see if her version of events checks out.
- LORI: Delma was out walking through the neighborhood
at that specific time that she said she was.
Several people had seen her.
She was actually up at, uh, Pam's house,
during the time that you know, that we think
that the homicide took place.
- NARRATOR: Neighbors also back up
Delma's allegation that Sally Cook
returned to the Ferrara home that evening.
- One of the neighbors had said
that they had seen Jimmie driving his car up
with another woman in a passenger seat
that was definitely not Delma.
- NARRATOR: But before they can move on to other leads,
investigators bring Delma down to the police station
to see if there are any cracks in her story.
- They asked Delma if she would take
a polygraph test, to which she said she would.
- JAMES T: She was asked, "Did you kill your husband?"
She said no,
and the polygraph indicated that she was being truthful.
When she was asked,
"Did you plan or conspire to kill your husband?"
She also said no.
But the findings came back inconclusive.
- NARRATOR: Delma offers up
a damning explanation for the findings.
- LORI: Delma kind of opened up about
Jimmie being domineering, uh, very controlling,
very much a womanizer.
Delma said she had actually thought about killing Jimmie.
Maybe that is why she may have sparked, uh,
deception on that part of the polygraph.
- JAMES T: There seemed to be at least a motive there.
And they thought maybe she was connected in some way.
They just couldn't figure out exactly how.
- NARRATOR: Following the polygraph,
detectives press Delma on any other information
that could be useful.
Delma tells them that her husband
had a glamorous but complicated past.
- Delma did say that, at one point,
she believed that he was involved with the mafia.
- NARRATOR: To investigators,
Delma's reasoning seems plausible,
but they make one more request before releasing her.
- We did ask if we could take her clothes
for evidence, um, there was a spot or two
that may have resembled, could have been possibly blood.
So, she did agree to--to give us
the evidentiary clothing off of her
and that was put into evidence and then later tested.
- NARRATOR: While awaiting the results
of the gunshot residue and blood trace tests,
investigator's next move is to find anyone
who might know about Jimmie's personal history
beyond movie sets.
They head to the home of his niece, Pam Denman.
- This is where Delma had gone
the night of the murder.
So, we really needed to get, uh, her side of the story.
- They talked to Pamela Denman,
and she does corroborate Delma's alibis.
She corroborates what time she arrived at the home
and that Delma had been there the entire time.
- NARRATOR: Pam doesn't know about any mob ties,
but she does tell detectives that her uncle had
a definite weak spot when it came to women.
Allegedly, including his neighbor's wife,
Mrs. Carey.
- Apparently, Jimmie Ferrara
forced a kiss on his neighbor, Noreen Carey.
Phil Carey, of course, was the man who called 911.
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
Did Jimmie put the moves on the wrong woman?
- We asked Pamela, you know,
"What would Phil think about if he found out
that Jimmie, had tried to kiss Noreen?"
And Pam said that he'd be furious.
- NARRATOR: And a close friend of Jimmie's
casts suspicion on herself.
- If you have nothing to hide,
why will you not take a polygraph?
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Investigators in Yuma, Arizona,
have just learned that Phil Carey,
the man who called 911,
might have had a motive to kill
65-year-old Jimmie Ferrara.
- We asked Pamela, you know, "What would Phil think about
if he found out that Jimmie had tried to kiss Noreen?"
And Pam said that he'd be furious.
- JAMES T: Pamela also told the police that Phil Carey
had dealings with, uh, Jimmie.
In fact, he had recently borrowed $500 from Jimmie.
- She did know that Jimmie had lent Phil $500.
But she said that he hadn't paid Jimmie back.
- Now Pam says to investigators
that Jimmie was not the kind of guy
you wanted to borrow money from, because he never forgave a debt.
- NARRATOR: With Jimmie Ferrara
proving to be a man of many faces,
investigators bring in Phil Carey
for a second interview.
Phil insists he took care of the outstanding loan.
- He tells him well, actually, that debt was cleared
because his wife Noreen, had been cleaning Jimmie's house
while he and Delma, were on vacation.
- NARRATOR: As far as Jimmie's advances towards Phil's wife,
Phil claims he was unaware.
- PATRICK: They ask him about this forced kiss
that Jimmie put on Phil's wife, Noreen.
Well, Phil didn't know anything about it.
He tells investigators that, uh,
that wouldn't have been motive for him
to want to hurt Jimmie because he didn't know.
- JAMES T: At the end of his interview,
Phil agrees to take a polygraph, and he is found to be truthful.
- NARRATOR: With Phil Carey taken off the suspect's list,
investigators next focus on Jimmie's friend,
19-year-old Sally Cook.
- We know that Sally had come over,
she visited Jimmie, and she was potentially
the last person to actually see Jimmie alive.
- NARRATOR: Detectives locate Sally
and bring her in for an interview.
- When we got there,
I remember them telling me that he was killed.
And I just-- it was so shocking,
I had--I had just seen him just a few hours before that.
It didn't seem real to me.
- NARRATOR: Investigators cut to the chase.
- When asked did she kill him,
she absolutely said no.
Did she know who may have killed him?
She said she had no idea. She denied any of it.
- NARRATOR: Sally also denies Delma's claim
that Jimmie was her lover.
Sally tells them that her boyfriend, Don Endres,
is a friend of Jimmie's.
- I remember trying to explain to them
Jimmie and I weren't involved in that way.
We were strictly platonic.
We never did anything along those lines.
- Police asked Sally what she was doing
when she went to visit Jimmie that day.
She said that when she went to talk to him,
she did not go in the shower with him
and did not see him naked.
But only talked to him outside of the shower,
that they were just making plans for the day.
- NARRATOR: Sally says, when she returned that evening,
it was to take Jimmie to her boyfriend's house.
- She comes back over to Jimmie's house.
Jimmie said he'll drive, so they get into Jimmie's car,
and they're going out to the foothills.
- SALLY: We visited him. We had dinner,
and we drove back to town to Jimmie's.
I got in my car and left.
- She said that was the last time she saw him.
- NARRATOR: For investigators,
Sally's visit to Don raises another question.
- Delma's saying that Sally's got
a sexual relationship with her husband.
Sally's saying that she's had
no sexual relationship with Jimmie.
Now learning that Sally has a boyfriend
and that Jimmie, actually,
went out to visit the boyfriend that night with her,
now you've got a whole 'nother realm
you got to think about.
- They thought maybe it was a jealousy thing
or, uh, a love triangle.
It quickly turned to, "If it wasn't you, it was Don."
- NARRATOR: But before they move on to Don,
detectives ask Sally to take a polygraph.
- She tells investigators that she would prefer
to speak to a lawyer first.
- A declination to a polygraph,
it doesn't mean that you're guilty
but, again, in law enforcement mind,
it's, "If you have nothing to hide,
why will you not take a polygraph?"
- Immediately, they made it clear to me
that I was a person of interest.
I was young. I was scared.
- NARRATOR: With a lawyer present,
Sally relents and agrees to the polygraph.
- LORI: So, Sally was given a polygraph.
She showed no deception,
and Sally was basically taken off the list.
- NARRATOR: The next day,
police give Sally Cook's boyfriend,
Don Endres, a polygraph
to see if he knows more about Jimmie's death.
- Don, was asked if he was in possession
of any firearms? Don said he did not.
Don was asked if he killed Jimmie. He said no.
He asked if he knew who killed Jimmie. No.
- PATRICK: He tells them that he trusts Sally
and that he's friends with Jimmie.
And he just says
that they're all friends and everything is okay.
He was basically able to back up everything
that Sally had told investigators.
- NARRATOR: With every potential suspect seemingly cleared,
the only lead left to follow is Jimmie's potential mob ties.
- Police interviewed Jimmie's former wife, Leona,
of like 19 years.
She's never known Jimmie to hang out
with anybody in the mafia, anything like that.
- There was never any direct evidence
that pointed to the fact that he may have been a mobster.
- NARRATOR: What's more,
Yuma investigators get the results
of gunshot residue and blood trace tests
on Jimmie's wife's clothing.
Both are negative, and Delma is officially clear.
- We just could not get enough probable cause
or evidence to link anybody to this homicide.
- NARRATOR: With no other witnesses
coming forward and no fingerprints
on the shell casings found at the scene,
police are officially out of leads.
- LORI: We went through numerous, numerous interviews,
following every lead that we possibly could.
We just didn't have anything solid.
The case, you know, goes cold.
- NARRATOR: Over 20 years pass,
and Jimmie Ferrara's murder remains unsolved.
- When you have a cold case that has gone on
for decades like this,
really, the only way you are ever going to break it
is if you happen to stumble upon evidence
from some other unrelated crime
or if a tipster comes forward.
- I think we all assumed that the murder
would never be solved.
- NARRATOR: Then, out of the blue,
detectives in Yuma get exactly what they need
on January 9, 2006.
- Yuma Police Department gets an anonymous phone call
from a tipster saying he knew the killer
in the Jimmie Ferrara murder.
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
After two long decades,
a suspect finally comes into focus.
- LORI: He's gettin' cotton mouth,
he's startin' to get like a little bit pale.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: In 2006,
investigators in Yuma, Arizona, have just received a tip
that could crack the 20-year-old cold case murder
of western film star, Jimmie Ferrara.
- JAMES T: This is a huge break.
This case has been cold for almost 20 years,
and now out of the blue they get a tip
that might give them the answer.
- NARRATOR: The man identifies himself as Cary Elliot.
He claims his nephew, Rick Kosterow,
is responsible for Jimmie's death.
- PATRICK: He tells investigators
that Rick, who was a Marine in Yuma at the time,
had planned the murder of Jimmie Ferrara
with his buddy Don White.
- LORI: He explains that his nephew
and Donald White, soon after the homicide,
came up to his place in California.
They were drinking around a bonfire,
and Rick just starts talking about everything that happened.
How they killed this guy,
that he was a western movie star.
- NARRATOR: For two decades,
Cary chose to protect his nephew.
- But 20 years later,
Cary has had a falling out with his nephew, Rick,
and he's upset with him.
And he just didn't think that Rick Kosterow
deserved to get away with this crime.
And that is why he is finally,
after so many years,
calling the police to blow the whistle.
- NARRATOR: Investigators find
that if Don White and Rick Kosterow
did actually commit a murder 20 years earlier,
they have since kept their noses clean.
- LORI: Both have gotten out of the Marine Corp
and kinda gone on with their lives.
Donald White is now a commercial pilot.
He's in the Army Reserves.
Rick Kosterow is--
is successfully running his family's bagel company,
doing quite well, each one of 'em.
- NARRATOR: In May 2006,
detectives fly to Ft. Still, Oklahoma,
to meet with 41-year-old Master Sergeant Don White.
- He's about to deploy to Iraq,
so they rush to make sure that they get a hold of him
before he ships out to overseas.
And they are able to get there in time.
And they interview Don White at the military base.
- NARRATOR: Don admits to being friends
with Rick Kosterow when they were both
young marines stationed in Yuma.
But when detectives bring up Jimmie Ferrara's murder,
Don quickly becomes tense.
- He's gettin' cotton mouth, he starts asking for water.
He's startin' to get like a little bit pale.
- NARRATOR: Don explains that, in 1985,
Rick introduced him to a woman he was having an affair with.
- NARRATOR: The woman's name?
Delma Lee Ferrara.
Don says, the one time he met Delma,
she showed him evidence of Jimmie's alleged abuse.
- She had promised to pay them each $25,000.
- At that meeting, they actually start plotting
what they're going to do.
Rick and Don and Delma draw a diagram of the house,
and they start talking about when Jimmie is going to be home.
- They start talking about this,
and it snowballs into a plan for murder.
- NARRATOR: On September 29, 1985,
Rick called Don and told him it was time.
They drove to the Ferrara home and entered through
an unlocked door while Jimmie was out with Sally.
When Jimmie returned home, the two men were waiting.
- NARRATOR: Following the murder,
Delma didn't come through on her promise of a reward.
In fact, Don says he never had
any contact with her after that.
- NARRATOR: Investigators place Don under arrest
for the murder of Jimmie Ferrara.
As he awaits extradition to Arizona,
investigators head north to track down Don's accomplice.
- PATRICK: Investigators track down Rick Kosterow
at his family bagel business in Washington State.
He doesn't want to be questioned.
But they, of course tell him,
"If you don't come with us, we're going to arrest you."
And at that point, he agrees to be questioned.
- NARRATOR: When asked how he knew Delma,
47-year-old Rick reluctantly admits
to having an affair with her back in 1985.
- NARRATOR: Detectives bring Don's confession to the table.
But instead of caving, Rick holds his ground.
- Rick was just, you know,
"I don't remember. I don't remember."
- PATRICK: At one point, investigators say,
"Did Don White, ever tell you
about the way the crime went down?"
And that was the first moment that he cracked.
- NARRATOR: Rick refuses to admit more,
but it's all detectives need.
- At the end of the interview,
Rick is arrested and extradited back to Yuma.
- NARRATOR: With both Rick and Don behind bars,
investigators have one person left to corral--
a now remarried Delma Troy.
Coming up:
Investigators put Delma on record.
- NARRATOR: Was she a femme fatale
or trapped in a vicious cycle?
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On May 31, 2006, investigators
from Yuma, Arizona, locate 54-year-old Delma Troy
650 miles away in Fallon, Nevada.
- They put a local tail on her
with the local police department.
And they finally track her down and decide that
they are going to arrest her at a local retail store.
And they walk right up to her and they take her into custody.
- NARRATOR: When detectives sit down with Delma,
she claims she doesn't remember Don White.
- NARRATOR: But Rick Kosterow is a different story.
According to Delma, she met Rick on a flight back to Nevada,
when she was separated from Jimmie in 1984.
- She strikes up a conversation with the pilot of this flight,
who happens to be Rick Kosterow.
They strike up a bit of a friendship.
And sure enough, at some point, they started a relationship.
- NARRATOR: Delma tells detectives
that her affair with Rick
was a reprieve from her tumultuous marriage.
- NARRATOR: She alleges that on the afternoon
of September 29, 1985,
Jimmie beat her badly
after Sally Cook visited their home.
- NARRATOR: Delma insists her involvement stopped there.
- NARRATOR: Delma claims that Don and Rick
acted on their own.
- [gunshot]
- NARRATOR: Soon after the murder,
her relationship with Rick soured.
- NARRATOR: Delma says that even if she had
promised them money,
Jimmie left her with little to give.
- NARRATOR: Having already interviewed Don and Rick,
investigators have one glaring problem
with Delma's claims of innocence.
- NARRATOR: As the interview concludes,
Delma's motive comes into focus:
a twofold desire to escape her husband's alleged abuse,
and to get her hands on whatever money he had left.
- LORI: Nobody really knew how much he was worth.
But he was getting, annually, $40,000 just in interest
on the sale of the--the two ranches up there.
I mean, lord knows what the property was worth.
I think that she was tired of waiting for Jimmie
to die of natural causes.
- Delma is then charged with first-degree murder
and conspiracy to commit murder.
- NARRATOR: While Delma's claims of abuse
might garner sympathy from jurors,
Delma and her defense team face a significant hurdle
in order to substantiate those allegations.
- There was nothing for us to--to show that,
you know, that she had ever made a police report
as far as being abused or anything like that.
- No one else was able to confirm
this side of Jimmie and Delma's relationship.
- NARRATOR: In 2007, Delma pleads guilty
to attempted second degree murder.
Don makes the same decision,
while Rick chooses to take his chances in court.
- JAMES G: Both Delma and Donald White
had accepted plea offers from the prosecution.
So basically, Kosterow
was going to trial with two people
who he's accused of committing a crime with,
who will testify against him.
- NARRATOR: The gamble doesn't pay off.
- The verdict's read off, "Guilty on all counts."
The judge sentenced him to 25 years to life.
- NARRATOR: Following Rick's trial,
Delma and Don are both sentenced to twelve and a half years.
Having served over half of her sentence,
in February 2015,
62-year-old Delma dies in prison.
- I think she painted Jimmie as somewhat of a monster,
to be honest with you,
and that they-- they wanted to rescue her.
- Delma Lee wasn't evil.
But the men in her life were.
- LORI: She was probably dealt a pretty crappy hand.
But you know it's up to you what you do with it.
In the end, justice is going to find you
no matter how many years later.
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