Bookie's Wife: Another Indictment
Bob Angleton's acquittal was devastating to prosecutor Lyn McClellan, who is still convinced that Bob is guilty.
"I think we did do the best job, but it wasn't good enough," says McClellen, who didn't give up hope. He thinks that Bob Angleton can be tried again.
Trying the same person for the same crime more than once, also known as double jeopardy, is prohibited by the Constitution. That means the state can't try Bob Angleton again for murder. But federal prosecutors can charge him with a federal crime, so they're trying to find some fresh evidence.
Aspiring true-life crime writer, Vanessa Leggett, was working on a book about Doris Angelton's murder. And her interest in this case led to yet another startling twist.
"Based on my research, I think that Bob hired Roger Angelton, his brother, to have his wife killed," says Leggett, who talked to Roger for more than 50 hours -- and she has it all on tape.
Federal prosecutors believed Leggett's tapes, and other information from her confidential sources, could be the new evidence they need to finally convict Bob Angelton.
In these tapes, Roger describes how Bob planned the murder -- and how they would make police think Roger did it alone, motivated by revenge.
The one thing Roger said he never planned on was getting caught and botching up the plan. Leggett thinks Roger felt so guilty that he thought he had no choice, but to kill himself and leave a note clearing his brother, Bob.
"In fact, he even showed me this letter over a week before he ended up dead," says Leggett. "And told me that he had to do this to help his brother, so that hopefully his brother would get off the charges."
The feds wanted Leggett to hand over her tapes and confidential sources. She was willing to give up the tapes -- but nothing more. "I had made promises to my sources and never intended on giving the FBI my information," she said.
Leggett was cited for contempt of court, and spent five months in jail. In January 2002, shortly after 48 Hours first broadcast this story, she was released, having never revealed her sources.
Even without Leggett's information, the feds were not giving up. And nearly four years after Bob Angelton was acquitted, federal prosecutors finally made their move. Angelton was indicted on federal conspiracy and murder-for-hire charges.
Angleton's lawyer, Mike Ramsey, is seeking to have these new charges dismissed, arguing they violate double jeopardy laws. Angleton was released again on bond to await his second trial.
Last May, just one month before Bob Angelton's federal murder trial was set to begin, he and his twin daughters spent time catching up on all they have missed together.
Ramsey, Angleton's attorney, believes that his client is being unfairly prosecuted, but he believes there is a good change he will win again in court: "If he lived in any other country, this would not be going on."
But as it turns out, Bob had an exit plan -- and four days before his trial was set to begin, he disappeared and fled the country.
His daughters and his attorney became concerned when they could not reach him. "I thought if Bob was gonna do anything, it would have been suicide," says Ramsey.
But Angelton got as far as Amsterdam, and was arrested at the airport within 24 hours of his disappearance, when a routine customs search revealed a fake passport and $140,000 in undeclared cash.
"I said, 'Bob, I can't help you ... I'm not going to talk to you,'" recalls Ramsey, who said he felt betrayed and compromised by his client. "He'd committed another crime while I was representing him. And that's something no lawyer really wants to put up with."
Ramsey asked the judge to allow him to quit, but his request was denied.
So once again, Bob Angelton is behind bars -- a familiar environment in a foreign setting, in a prison known as The Dome. He's waiting for a decision from the Dutch government on whether to charge him in that country or send him back to the U.S. -- to face the possibility of a life sentence.
Bob Angelton isn't off the hook, but he's put distance between himself and U.S. law -- and saved himself from the death penalty. U.S. attorneys say they won't seek it now, because the Dutch would never hand him over, given Europe's ban on capital punishment.
Angleton remains in prison while awaiting an extradition hearing, which is scheduled for next month. But even if he is ordered back to the U.S. to face another trial, he'll still have multiple appeals under Dutch law.
As for Vanessa Leggett, jailed longer than any reporter in U.S. history for refusing to reveal her sources, she fears becoming the target of another subpoena if Angelton's case comes to trial again.
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