Joann Curley
Joann Curley (born Joann Marie Chopack on September 23, 1963) is the wife of Robert "Bobby" Curley, as well as the main villainess behind her husband's murder in 1991.
Joann married Bobby sometime in 1990, and it was at their wedding that Bobby informed his new wife that she would be the receipient of a $300,000 life insurance policy. In response to this, Joann turned heel six weeks into her marriage by beginning her plan to kill Bobby to inherit the funds, as well as to keep him from spending $1.7 million she won in a lawsuit. She began her plan sometime in October of 1990, using rat poison and lacing it in his food and drinks. Joann used just a small dose for months, but added more due to her fear that it wasn't getting the job done.
Joann also used thallium in her murderous plan, which resulted in Bobby being hospitalized in September of 1991. Bobby showed improvement on September 26, 1991, but on that day, the evil Joann laced a large amount of thallium inside Bobby's iced tea and served the drink and a pizza to him while visiting Bobby in the hospital. It was reported that Bobby begged a nurse for help that evening, stating that Joann was trying to kill him, but on the following morning (September 27), Bobby died as a result of the poisoning; he was only 32.
The investigation into Bobby's death took five years and it was Bobby's strands of hair that revealed that he was killed via thallium poisoning. It was originally believed that a co-worker did this as a prank of sorts, but after seeing the large amount that was used and figuring out the lengthy period that the poisoning was occurring, it all led back to Joann. Joann Curley was arrested on December 12, 1996, and she faced the death penalty for her husband's murder. However, Joann accepted a plea deal and admitted to killing Bobby, stating that the insurance money was her motive. In addition, it was uncovered that both Joann and her four-year-old daughter (from a previous relationship) had a small amount of thallium in their systems, leading to the reveal that Joann poisoned both herself and her daughter to throw off suspicion, a claim that Joann denied.
Joann was convicted of 3rd-degree murder in 1997, and with time already served, she was released from prison on December 12, 2016.