Lowell Amos

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Lowell Edwin Amos (January 4, 1943 - January 5, 2022) was an American man whose mother and three wives all died in suspicious circumstances, leaving Lowell large sums of money. Lowell was convicted of the murder of his third wife, Roberta Amos, in 1996. He was the subject of the 2006 TV movie Black Widower.

Biography

Lowell's first wife, Saundra Amos, died suspiciously in 1979. She was found dead in the bathroom, having fallen and hit her head. Lowell claimed that she had placed sedatives in her wine before drinking it, causing her death. The cause of death was ruled "undetermined" and Lowell received $350, 000 in life insurance.

Shortly after Saundra's death, Lowell married his mistress Carolyn. The two frequently argued over the $800, 000 life insurance policy Lowell had taken out on Carolyn until Carolyn threw Lowell out of the house, forcing him to go and live with his mother. A few weeks later, his mother was taken to hospital by Lowell. She was released after no diagnosis was made, and died several days later. Lowell told Carolyn over the phone that his mother just died. When she arrived at the house, she found that Lowell had already loaded his belongings into the car, explaining that he did not want people to know he lived with his mother. An autopsy was not performed due to her age and Lowell inherited $1000, 000 from her death.

Lowell moved back in with Carolyn. Nine months later, she was found dead in the bath. Lowell claimed she had been electrocuted while blow-drying her hair. However, a wine glass which he claimed to have brought her was found, recently washed, in the sink in the kitchen. No cause of death was ever determined and Lowell gained an $800, 000 insurance payout. He later married his third wife, Roberta Amos.

On December 10, 1994, Lowell and his wife attended a company party for General Motors at the Atheneum Hotel in Detroit. The Amoses went back to their suite at 4:30 am. Four hours later, Lowell called fellow attendee Bert Crabtree and frantically told him that Roberta had had an accident. When Crabtree and another executive, Daniel Porcasi, arrived, Lowell told him his wife was dead and he needed to clean up before calling the police. He gave Porcasi his sport coat to look after. While driving home, Porcasi happened to notice a suspicious-looking bulge in the pocket and found a syringe and a foul-smelling washcloth inside. Lowell later took his coat back and neither item was ever seen again.

Lowell told police that he and Roberta had been performing sex acts involving cocaine when Roberta overdosed and died. He claimed that she had been unable to snort it due to her sinus problems and had instead been ingesting it through her vagina. Police were incredibly suspicious of Lowell's story. Roberta's body contained over 15 times the fatal dose of cocaine, begging the question of how she had been able to ingest it all before dying. There was also no cocaine on the outside of her vulva, leading police to suspect that Amos was lying about how she had taken it. This suspicion was fuelled by the fact that Roberta had no makeup on despite lipstick marks being found on the pillow, suggesting that the body had been cleaned after death.

Lowell was placed under surveillance. He was caught going on a spending spree and having sex with multiple women two days after Roberta' s death. Police also discovered the deaths of Lowell's previous wives and his mother. Lowell was eventually arrested after Crabtree and Porcasi were interviewed. Police concluded based on the evidence that Lowell had smothered Roberta with the pillow and injected her vulva with cocaine to cover it up.

Lowell was charged with Roberta's murder. Evidence related to the deaths of his previous wives was introduced at trial to establish a pattern of behaviour. Prosecutors argued that while Lowell lacked a financial incentive to kill Roberta, he wanted to prevent a lengthy divorce: Roberta had told friends and family that she wanted to leave Lowell and bought her own house. He was convicted of premediated murder on October 24, 1996, and was sentenced to life without parole. An appeal claiming that evidence relating to the deaths of his previous wives should not have been introduced was rejected and he died in prison in 2022 a day after his 79th birthday.