Jealously drove Marissa to do the unthinkable and send an email to hitmanforhire.net. She already had some information on her former boyfriend’s new girlfriend. It was so easy to snoop about his new life. Both he and his new flame had Myspace pages. It was just a coincidence that his profile was deleted at the same time he was moving in with her! A visit to the recording studio had been an ideal opportunity to copy his phone contacts, after all, they even had the same make of mobile phone. You can find out so much about a person online. You can also find solutions to a lot of problems while you’re at it. Like Collins, when Marissa stumbled upon hitmanforhire.net it seemed to provide the ideal answer to her problems. Whether she thought of it as a joke is not known, but she filled in her love rival’s details and entered into a correspondence with ‘Luciano’. In her quest to find out exactly who Joshua had hooked up with, she had found quite a lot of information about Anne Lauryn Royston. Marissa had allegedly taken photos from Royston’s Myspace page and had all the details about where she worked as a loan broker.[2] She sent the info to ‘Luciano’.
Of course, ‘Luciano’ wouldn’t be shooting anyone. Instead of a sharp Italian hitman it was Eid and Engle who turned up at Royston’s office on 15 September 2006. She had received a phone call from Eid three days earlier. He had spun a line about wanting to refinance the house in Las Vegas and said someone had recommended that he speak to her. He would be in Santa Rosa, California, he said, would it be possible to meet there? Royston told him she had no idea where Santa Rosa was but she could meet him somewhere in between. Eid called her back later that day and changed the arrangement. He told her he and his wife would be in their hotel in Beverly Hills on Saturday, 16 September, they could meet Royston at around 8.30 a.m. On the morning of the 16th, Royston decided that meeting at the hotel wasn’t the best idea so she rang Eid on his mobile and told him to meet her in the office at 10 a.m. At 9 a.m. he rang her back and asked her what was taking her so long. He was already at the office. His yellow Corvette was an exceptionally fast way of getting from A to B. Royston told him she would still be arriving at 10 a.m. Why didn’t he wait for her?
Arriving at the office she looked around but didn’t see any yellow Corvette. Of course he might be parked somewhere out of sight. She headed upstairs to her office to prepare for the meeting. A few minutes later, Eid and Engle were let into the building by the receptionist. Royston met them at the lift and brought them into the conference room. That was when that ordinary Saturday morning took a turn and things started to get very weird indeed. Royston sat down at the conference table with Eid sitting opposite her. Engle closed the door behind them and went and sat down in a chair up against the wall. She didn’t say much during the meeting.
It was Eid who did all the talking.[3] The two of them were dressed head to toe in black. Eid was looking every inch the gangster with his thick moustache, black suit and black dress shirt. When he arrived he was wearing his trademark metal aviator sunglasses. Engle sat quietly, wearing black trousers and a long sleeved black shirt. Royston noted the smell of cigarette smoke that came into the room with her and that when she opened her mouth to speak her teeth were badly stained with nicotine. Royston tried to get the meeting underway. She handed Eid a package showing all the details for the loans the company offered. Eid looked at it briefly before pushing it back to her. He brought out a folder of his own and pushed it across the table towards Royston. She looked at the black zip up folder lying in front of her. It was full of photographs of her. She recognised them immediately. They were the ones from her Myspace page. She looked at Eid in shock. He calmly looked back at her and told her,
‘Somebody wants your head. Somebody wants you killed and they hate you a lot.’
Royston was stunned and upset. She started crying. Eid allegedly pulled out an email sent from Marissa’s email address.[4] It said that Marissa had put down a deposit of $17,000 and wanted Royston shot in the head. Royston was terrified. She had already received strange phone calls from a woman who had told Royston in no uncertain terms to stay away from her man. Joshua, who had been living with her since he had moved up to L.A. a couple of weeks ago, was sure that Marissa was behind that call. Now this? What on earth had she done now? Eid leaned forward and told her that it was going to be all right. Royston reminded him of his daughter. He couldn’t bring himself to kill her. Royston listened carefully.
Unfortunately there was a problem, Eid told her. If he didn’t follow through on the contract there was nothing to stop Marissa getting someone else who would carry out the killing. But there was a way out. He could always get rid of Marissa for her. Then there would be no one to come after her. No! Royston didn’t want anything to do with another plot and she certainly had no reason to want Marissa dead. She ran out of the conference room in tears. Eid and Engle stayed sitting there. Royston’s colleagues gathered around her trying to find out what was wrong.
‘Those two people in the conference room … they’re not clients. They want to kill me!’
Gathering herself together she went back into the conference room to face them. Her assistant, Melanie Kasemaier went in with her for moral support. Royston told Eid she couldn’t give him any kind of answer today. She needed to talk things through with her boyfriend. Eid was understanding. They could come back at 11.30 p.m. once she had talked things over with Joshua; when she’d had a chance to think through her situation. Kasemaier, taking in the conman’s appearance and the folder of photographs on the table asked Eid if he was for real. ‘Yes, sweetheart’, he replied, as he and Engle stood up to leave. As he left the conference room Eid went over to Royston and gave her a big hug to say goodbye.[5]
As soon as they had left Royston emailed Joshua. He didn’t answer her straight away. He was still getting settled in L.A. and had gone to a job fair that morning. He was in an interview when his phone beeped. He didn’t look at it. Royston kept emailing him as the enormity of what she had just been through began to hit. By the time Joshua looked at his phone there were a stack of messages. He realised she needed help and headed straight over to her office. Royston was still frantic when he arrived. She told him about the visit from Eid and Engle. The criminals had claimed that Marissa sent them.
‘She wants me dead!’
She told him about the email Eid had showed her and how it said that Marissa had paid $17,000 to have her shot in the head. They were coming back, she told him. Joshua tried to make her call the cops but she was too scared. They could still be around. She didn’t even want to leave the safety of her office.
Joshua was determined to get to the bottom of things. He rang Marissa who denied everything.
‘What are you talking about? I never hired any hitman.’[6]
Joshua told her he just wanted to know the truth. Had she hired someone to kill Royston as the email had suggested? Marissa denied everything. Royston grabbed the phone out of Joshua’s hand. Marissa wasn’t going to tell her anything. The conversation degenerated and Marissa announced that she had been pregnant with Joshua’s baby only three months ago, although she wasn’t pregnant any more. In her anger and frustration Royston hung up. She just couldn’t listen to any more. A few seconds later Joshua’s phone beeped again. It was a text from Marissa. She hadn’t hired any hitman. Someone had probably hacked into her computer and sent those mails. A strikingly similar defence to the one that Sharon Collins would be using in court the following year.
It was now almost 11.30 p.m. Royston didn’t want the hitman and Engle turning up again so she called Eid. He told her to meet him at a place called Cables Restaurant in the Woodland Hills area but when she and Joshua drove up they couldn’t see either Eid or Engle anywhere around the restaurant. Royston called Eid again. The restaurant had been far too crowded for the conversation they needed to have, he told her, and he was waiting for her in the Holiday Inn just down the street. Sure enough, when Joshua pulled up in front of the Inn, Engle was sitting on a bench outside waiting for them. She got up to meet them and curt
ly told them to follow her. She led them through the lobby of the hotel to the pool area in the back. She sat down at a patio table and gestured for them to join her. Joshua was nervous, constantly checking the surrounding roofs for a sniper trained on them as they sat there.
Engle lit a cigarette and pushed an email towards them. Joshua saw that the mail was from [email protected] but he recognised the style as being that of Marissa’s.[7] She was talking about a contract on Royston’s life and calmly discussed prices. He noticed Engle’s hands were skinny with prominent veins. Her fingers were nicotine stained. As she spoke, he also noticed her teeth were stained and decayed. Her shoes were open toed and he thought she could have done with a pedicure.
Pulling himself together he asked Engle what they were going to do to sort out the situation. You’ve two choices, she told him. Either your girlfriend dies or the two of you get the money together to pay the balance on the contract. If they didn’t come up with the $37,000 by 29 September something could still happen to Royston. She then turned to Royston.
‘You’re the luckiest woman in America,’ she told her. ‘Normally we don’t allow the mark a way out.’
She said they normally just handled the matter and didn’t give the mark a chance. Joshua told her there was no way they could get that kind of money. Engle looked at him across the table.
‘Is that what you’ll say when Lauryn is buried next Tuesday?’
Royston wanted to talk to Eid but Engle told her he wasn’t around at the moment. He’d be in touch though. She got up to leave. Royston and Joshua didn’t see Eid at all that time, but as they were driving away from the Holiday Inn they spotted Engle waving at a yellow Corvette. As they drove away Joshua rang Marissa again. He told her he’d just been reading the emails she had sent to the hitman. He said she would go to jail for this.[8] Marissa started crying. She never meant any harm. She was sorry. It had all been a joke that had gotten out of hand.
A few days later, Royston got a phone call from a man calling himself ‘Tony Luciano’. She recognised the Middle Eastern accent. She was sure it was really Eid. She asked ‘Luciano’ how she could trust him. How could she know that Marissa wouldn’t just go and hire a different hitman? ‘Luciano’ told her not to worry. He knew the business he said. He came from a family of hitmen, in fact his father ran the biggest network of assassins in the United States. If anyone was trying to hire a replacement they would know about it. Once she had paid off ‘Luciano’ it would all be over. She would never hear from them again. She later told Joshua about the call and he finally managed to convince her to go to the police. But by the time the arm of the law stretched out in the direction of Eid and Engle they had come into contact with the law in Ireland after upping their game considerably and trying to net the big one. Eid rang Royston on 19 September, a week after turning up at her offices. On the 26th he was standing on Robert Howard’s doorstep trying to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse. In both cases though, the offers were refused.
[1] Evidence given in the trial of Teresa Engle heard before the Californian Central District Court, USA.
[2] Evidence given in the trial of Teresa Engle heard before the Californian Central District Court, USA.
[3] Evidence given in the trial of Teresa Engle heard before the Californian Central District Court, USA.
[4] Evidence given in the trial of Teresa Engle heard before the Californian Central District Court, USA.
[5] Evidence given in the trial of Teresa Engle heard before the Californian Central District Court, USA.
[6] Evidence given in the trial of Teresa Engle heard before the Californian Central District Court, USA.
[7] Evidence given in the trial of Teresa Engle heard before the Californian Central District Court, USA.
[8] Evidence given in the trial of Teresa Engle heard before the Californian Central District Court, USA.
CHAPTER 7:
LYING EYES AND TONY LUCIANO
At the beginning of August 2006, Collins took the plunge and sent off the first tentative email to hitmanforhire.net At around quarter to four on Tuesday, 8 August, sitting in the front office at Downes & Howard she sent off her request.
‘Two male marks in Ireland. ASAP. Usually together. Must look like accident. Then possibly a third within 24 hours. Prefer a suicide. Would appreciate a call by return.’
It didn’t take long for ‘Luciano’ to get back to her. Almost by return he fired back.
‘I got your email. We will call you within 30 minutes. Can you email us back with more info before we call?’
True to his word he called. Collins hadn’t provided the information he asked for at first. For once she was being careful. But soon after she put the phone down she was at the keyboard again.
‘Hi. We were just talking. As you can imagine I am extremely nervous about sending this message and even talking on the phone.
There are actually three, but two of them would probably be together and the third would not be in Ireland, he would be in Spain.
The first two live in Ireland as I said. The town they live in is Ennis, Co. Clare, in the west of the country. They are brothers. One aged 27 (big guy) and 23 (not so big). They share a house at present but there are two others living in the house as well.
They work in the same place and spend a lot of time together. I do not want it to look like a hit. This is important. I want it to look like an accident—perhaps travelling in a car together or in a boat (they do a lot of boating) off the west coast. Or maybe you have some ideas of you own.
The third is an older man—aged 57 and not very fit or strong. He would probably be in mainland Spain if not in Ireland. His location would depend on when the job could be done. Again it is imperative that it does not look like a hit. I would prefer suicide—or is it possible for it to look like natural causes? He’s got a lot of health problems.
What I need to know is:
1: How soon could the above be done? Days, weeks, months?
2: If the first job is done in Ireland, is it possible for the second job to be done within 12 to 24 hours in Spain if that’s where he is?
3: How much would it cost and how much of a deposit would be needed up front? I ask this because I would have no problem getting my hands on the money immediately afterwards but it certainly would be very tricky beforehand.
4: Can it be done in the manner I’ve stated—without causing suspicion?
5: Most importantly, if a deposit must be paid how do I know that you would not disappear with the money and not do the job? After all who could I complain to?
6: Where are you located? Just curious about that!
It might be easier to email back for now. I’m not comfortable talking about it on the phone—even though this phone is unregistered and not used for anything else. I may get a chance to email you again within the next hour but I will be tied up tomorrow for approximately three days.’
Collins was being careful, as careful as she had ever been in an internet transaction. She remembered the hassle of getting the Mexican marriage certificate and was determined not to make the same mistakes … besides; it didn’t hurt to be thorough. She was as truthful as she could be. There was no point in hiding anything. She would indeed be unavailable for the next three days. Her embryonic career as a femme fatale would have to go on hold while she made her yearly trip to the prayer retreat at Lough Derg. She wouldn’t have to wait the three days to hear back from her hitman though. ‘Luciano’ didn’t take long to reply. This was definitely looking promising.
‘I got your email and I agree with you about the phone and every time you email me delete it. I will email you tonight and give you an answer. We have people all over the world, in Ireland and in Spain too. Just take a day to contact them. If not I have people from the UK too so now that’s my problem not you[rs]. I will contact you ASAP. Let you know all the info. But the most we have to trust each other. If these people [are] related to you, don’t contact them and go away from them …’
A few hours later he was back, having checked an imaginary Filofax.
‘Hello. Well we discuss about you[r] situation and we assume that these people is your two stepsons and your husband. Maybe we are right and maybe we are wrong. It’s important to know that to protect you and protect ourself too. For your safety if that so we can do two male first and after cool off we will do the third one. If that right tell us who the most beneficial to you we can do it first.
Now for all your question that you ask us earlier. Our price per person is $50,000 USD but cause three bird in one stone it will be $90,000 USD. Before we start we have to have a deposit of $45,000. You have a choice of Fedex money order or cashier cheque or you can transfer the money to our bank.
If we agree we can finish our job Saturday, August 19. Either one of them the two guys or the third person.
When we get the money we will process and our experience do what[‘s] the best for both party. You get you money back if we are failed or we didn’t do the job. But if you cancelled, your deposit is non-refund. I guess we answer all your questions. Just tell us more info about our target.
Thanks,
Tony Luciano’
Anxious to seal the deal he wrote again a short while later, forgetting the time distance and the fact that Collins would be unavailable for the next three days.
‘Let me know if you got our message … if you agree or not.’
But Collins was out of reach for the time being. ‘Luciano’ passed the time trying to convince Private Buckley to lend a helping hand. Buckley, of course, was never going to do anything wrong and had no idea about what Collins was planning with her American conspirators. However, three days later, true to her word, Collins was back.
The Devil in the Red Dress Page 7