JACKSONVILLE FL- A woman and her ex-husband are behind bars for conspiring to kill her newlywed husband and dump his body in an alligator farm, authorities said. Betty Lightfoot Sikes, 50, and her ex-husband, Alvin Lee Howard, 46, are charged with solicitation for premeditated murder. They are being held without bail in the Duval County Jail for allegedly plotting the murder of Danny Lee Ferguson for $100,000 in life insurance money, said Gayward Hendry, an investigator with the State Attorney's Office. They also face charges of grand theft and fraudulent insurance claims after they made arrangements with an informant for their semitrailer truck to be stolen and burned to collect the insurance, he said. The Duval County Court Clerk's Office said court records do not have defense attorneys listed for Howard and Sikes. A call to the Public Defender's Office was not immediately returned. There was no telephone listing for Sikes, Howard or Ferguson. According to state records, Betty Sikes has been married at least nine times. She married Danny Lee Ferguson in January after living in his home for about six years. Investigators began looking into the murder-for-hire plot April 9 after a confidential source was wired with a transmitter and recorded their conversation to carry out the plot. The couple supplied the informant with a pistol, gave information on where Ferguson could be found and agreed to have him shot and dumped at an alligator farm. As an alibi, the couple went on a night gambling cruise, Hendry said. After investigators told Ferguson about the plot, the shocked 53-year-old was put up in a hotel for three days while his murder was staged. The informant gave the couple a ring belonging to Ferguson and said the job had been completed. Both were arrested Friday after filing a missing-person report on Ferguson. The three worked as independent truck drivers.

This is no new trick......there was a man in south Texas who owned a cafe, and had a big pit full of alligators out back....he'd advertise for waitresses and when he'd find one who seemed to have no family he'd hire her and I guess he'd have a romance with her...when it cooled, he'd kill the girl and cut her up and feed her to the alligators....I seem to recall reading that he was married and his wife would help him find and then dispose of the bodies.....[nice folks, huh?]...... This happened back in the '30s, and before I was born, but I remember hearing about it (he lived not too far from where we lived)...my uncle was with the sheriff's office when they finally caught him....and I saw it in one of those "True Detective" magazines maybe 20 or so years ago.... Doris....A Texan in Georgia..... Still shaking the family tree and dodging the nuts after 30+ years! IBSSG ----- Original Message ----- From: <WHB925@aol.com> To: <BLACKSHEEP-CHAT-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 11:05 AM Subject: [BSChat] DISPOSING OF HUSBAND JACKSONVILLE FL- A woman and her ex-husband are behind bars for conspiring to kill her newlywed husband and dump his body in an alligator farm, authorities said. Betty Lightfoot Sikes, 50, and her ex-husband, Alvin Lee Howard, 46, are charged with solicitation for premeditated murder. They are being held without bail in the Duval County Jail for allegedly plotting the murder of Danny Lee Ferguson for $100,000 in life insurance money, said Gayward Hendry, an investigator with the State Attorney's Office. They also face charges of grand theft and fraudulent insurance claims after they made arrangements with an informant for their semitrailer truck to be stolen and burned to collect the insurance, he said. The Duval County Court Clerk's Office said court records do not have defense attorneys listed for Howard and Sikes. A call to the Public Defender's Office was not immediately returned. There was no telephone listing for Sikes, Howard or Ferguson. According to state records, Betty Sikes has been married at least nine times. She married Danny Lee Ferguson in January after living in his home for about six years. Investigators began looking into the murder-for-hire plot April 9 after a confidential source was wired with a transmitter and recorded their conversation to carry out the plot. The couple supplied the informant with a pistol, gave information on where Ferguson could be found and agreed to have him shot and dumped at an alligator farm. As an alibi, the couple went on a night gambling cruise, Hendry said. After investigators told Ferguson about the plot, the shocked 53-year-old was put up in a hotel for three days while his murder was staged. The informant gave the couple a ring belonging to Ferguson and said the job had been completed. Both were arrested Friday after filing a missing-person report on Ferguson. The three worked as independent truck drivers. ==== BLACKSHEEP-CHAT Mailing List ==== Unsubscribe from the list: Mailto:Blacksheep-Chat-L-request@rootsweb.com?subject=unsubscribe&body=unsub scribe ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237