Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Wanna be my Next Husband?

What do Scott Peterson,Mark Hacking, and Neil Entwistle have in common? They got caught on Wife Murder Number One. On the other hand, 76-year-old Betty Neumar had five dead husbands before the law caught up with her. Now, I am not saying she did in all five men as I have no proof yet that she even killed one. But, I am just a little more than curious how three of those husbands ended up shot to death and the other two died under suspicious circumstances!

Black Widows, as these serial killer women are called, get away with the murder of their spouses at a higher rate than men. One reason no doubt is that they don't mess with the bodies or run off and pretend they suddenly have psychiatric problems. No, they stand right in front of the police and shed tears and an awful lot of law enforcement agencies apparently fall for this act.

One of the reasons these women succeed in repeat homicides is they move from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Because there is no national suspect bank into which their names could go causing a red flag pop up if they are linked with another suspicious death, they slither under the radar. Each case is handled as a one-time event and the police in each jurisdiction are unaware of the widow's bad luck with husbands.

Betty will finally get her day in court but, at her age, all I can say is she sure had a good run of it.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown