Once again the Gerry Ryan email got a mention. And once again Collins tried to minimise its damaging thrust but even at this late stage she stopped short of saying she had made the whole thing up.
‘In addition Ms Collins is greatly upset by the intrusion of some elements of the press and I would ask on her behalf that there would be some dignity afforded to her. She has been subjected by an illegally held camera phone in the prison. Photographs have been taken of her in, what is in effect and will be for some time, her private residence. That is reprehensible and unacceptable.’
Then in a move that provided the tantalising glimpse of a curtain call, O’Kelly announced that Collins would indeed be fighting her conviction. There would indeed be an appeal so there was no point discussing the severity or not of the sentence. His statement finished, O’Kelly returned to the Four Courts and the media scrum disbanded to write up the story that would be on the front page of every paper the following day.
EPILOGUE
Despite all the revelations and allegations that had been presented to the court during her trial, despite every piece of evidence produced in proof of her many, profound betrayals, P.J. Howard said he was standing by Sharon Collins. For him she was no femme fatale, no scheming ‘devil in the red dress’. She was simply the woman he loved, his companion of nine years, his nurse and his helper. His friend.
For Collins, sitting in her cell in the women’s prison, there is probably considerable comfort to be taken from the knowledge that the man she had looked up to for most of her life, who had been her landlord and knight in shining armour, did not give up on her. The watching press and public might have shaken their heads in utter disbelief at his public display of trust after so profound a betrayal but for Collins there was still hope of a happy ever after.
The woman with the ‘passive, detached but dependent’ personality, who had plotted three murders would now pay the price for her involvement in the murderous conspiracy. But nothing had shaken P.J. Howard’s steadfast belief in her. As Collins’s solicitor had said, even if the jury had found her guilty, P.J. Howard himself had acquitted her.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, days after his appearance at the sentence hearing, Howard was emphatic in his belief that Collins was innocent.
‘It’s a waste of a good human being to put the likes of Sharon into jail. I don’t think I’ll be alive by the time Sharon serves her full term. I’m past my sell-by-date already. I want to set things right before I go,’ he said.
In his strongest protestation of his love for Collins he told the paper, ‘I wouldn’t live in Ireland with Sharon but, if she’d have me, we would live somewhere away from everybody.’ He couldn’t have been more honest in revealing his true feelings.
For her co-accused, the self styled hitman who had failed so miserably at a life of crime, the outlook isn’t quite so bright. He has no friends in Ireland. His wives have deserted him, his home was taken and the dazzling gaming tables of Vegas are now closed to him forever. Eid might be looking at a nearer release day but there will be no happy ever after for him.
When he finishes his sentence, it is likely that the FBI will want to speak to him about the Royston case. His future looks uncertain.
And so for ‘the devil in the red dress’ there is a silver lining of sorts. For all her scheming and plotting the chances are that she will be released before Christmas in 2012. The man she wanted to have killed has vowed to be there when she gets out. In other words there is still a chance of a happy ending somewhere far away from all the wreckage she has caused. In the meantime she will have time to read plenty of the blockbuster thrillers she so enjoyed and wonder at how her own life had come to mirror their twisting, turning plots.
Above: Every morning, Sharon Collins would arrive at court, clutching this neat black folder. As the day progressed she would write a steady stream of notes on yellow Post-It pads.
(Courtpix)
Above: Essam Eid leaves the Central Criminal Court after being sentenced to six years for extortion and two counts of handling stolen property.
(Courtpix)
Above: The homepage of www.hitmanforhire.net, seen here for the first time, on which Essam Eid advertised his services as a hitman.
His defence claimed that the site had nothing to do with him.
Above: Sharon Collins’s partner, P.J. Howard, leaves the court after delivering his victim impact statement on the day of her sentencing. Despite his plea to the judge not to impose a custodial sentence, Collins was sentenced to six years in jail.
(Courtpix)
Above: Niall Howard (left) and Robert Howard (right) arrive at the Central Criminal Court during the third week of Collins and Eid’s trial.
(Courtpix)
Above: Sharon Collins was flanked throughout the trial by her sons Gary (left) and David (right).
(Courtpix)
Above: Ingrid Sotelo. Engle told FBI Agent Ingrid Sotelo that she and Eid had made ricin at their home in Vegas, which they then brought to Ireland.
(Courtpix)
Above: Castor beans. Ricin comes from the castor bean; the same nondescript small brown bean that produces castor oil.
Above: Teresa Engle tried to extort €100,000 from Robert Howard along with Eid, but she told the gardaí that she was simply another victim; she was merely Eid’s pawn, an unwilling partner in all the subterfuge. She agreed to testify against Eid at his trial.
(Courtpix)
Above: Collins moved into P.J. Howard’s luxurious home with her sons in 1998, shortly after meeting him. He said in court that he would have no difficulty moving in to live with her again.
(Press 22)
Above: Radio host Gerry Ryan and his producer, Siobhán Hough, were called as witnesses during the trial. Collins had sent emails to his show alleging P.J. Howard had strange and kinky sexual preferences. These allegations were refuted by Howard.
(Courtpix)
Above: The Bellagio. Essam Eid worked in the Bellagio in Las Vegas as a poker dealer. He claimed he earned close to $100,000 a year in tips at the casino.
Above: Private Brian Buckley, who gave evidence in the trial, was unwittingly drawn into the affair after he happened upon hitmanforhire.net.
(Courtpix)
Above: When Collins came across hitmanforhire.net she initially filled in the employment form, to try to gauge whether this site was actually doing what it said, or if it was a comedy site, as so many others were. In a prophetic flash she put down ‘none yet’ beside ‘Criminal Record’.
When she didn’t receive an automated response, she then filled in the ‘Secure Email’ form using [email protected] as her contact email address.
Above: Sharon Collins is led away after being found guilty of conspiring to kill P.J. Howard and his sons.
(Courtpix)
Above: Eugene O’Kelly (left) issued a statement to the media on Sharon Collins’s behalf after she was sentenced to six years in prison. Standing from left to right. Eugene O’Kelly, Collins’s son David, her former husband Noel and her eldest son Gary.
(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)
Acknowledgements
My thanks to all the people who made this book possible particularly everyone at the Four Courts who made themselves available to check facts, dates, and spellings. Thank you to members of the Garda Síochana whose assistance in certain areas was an absolute lifeline and to those in County Clare who helped me find my way around the warren that is Ennis and pointed me in the right direction more than a few times.
Thanks especially to Diarmaid McDermott of Ireland International for his patience, and to everyone in the Four Courts media room during that trial. In particular thanks to Tom Tuite who convinced me to pitch this story, and Kathy Sheridan and Vivienne Traynor for all their encouragement. Thanks too go to Aoife Finneran of the Evening Herald and Sandra Murphy of the Irish Daily Mail for their help and answers to questions, and to Paddy and Brian of Courtpix and Garrett from Collins Photo Agency.
Also thank you to Jean Harrington at Maverick House for taking on the book and all her work getting it into shape.
To George Smith of www.globalsecurity.org and Commandant Peter Daly for their generous help on the thorny issue of ricin; also thanks to ‘Mr Pink’, the man behind www.hitman.us for getting in touch with me and allowing me to quote extensively from his website.
Special thanks go to Mal and Janina for reading early drafts and being calming influences and to Al, Emma, Wing, Natascha, Suzie, Rob and Ciarán for light relief and time out, not to mention patient answers to some of the technical questions.
Finally thank you to Michael, my husband, for having faith in me and always being there with a cup of tea and a hug.
Published in 2008 by Maverick House Publishers.
Maverick House, Office 19, Dunboyne Business Park, Dunboyne,
Co. Meath, Ireland.
[email protected]
http://www.maverickhouse.com
Copyright for text © 2008 Abigail Rieley
Typesetting, editing, layout, design © Maverick House.
The moral rights of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Maverick House e-books.
E-book edition ISBN: 978-1-905379-86-6.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Information
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
Photographs
Acknowledgements
Copyright
The Devil in the Red Dress Page 21