Love, Lies, and Murder Read online

  ABANDONED HUSBAND . . . OR DECEITFUL KILLER?

  Detective Miller, a soft-spoken man, asked Perry March point-blank if he had killed his wife and disposed of her body. Perry adamantly denied having harmed Janet in any way. He admitted that he and Janet had argued on the night of August 15, but he said that he had not attacked her. She simply took the things that she had packed and drove away in her Volvo.

  “Look at me,” Perry said at one point. “On August 15, 1996, I was a respected lawyer in Nashville. I had it all. A beautiful wife. Two wonderful kids. Gorgeous home. I was a go-to guy in the business community. I was making good money. Now, my wife has left me.”

  Later, Perry would go on-camera on CBS News’ 48 Hours and tell a national television audience: “Janet was a wonderful mother. Very doting.”

  It seemed strange how he referred to her in the past tense.

  Also by Gary C. King

  Blood Lust: Portrait of a Serial Sex Killer

  Driven to Kill

  Web of Deceit

  Blind Rage

  An Early Grave

  The Texas 7

  Murder in Hollywood

  Angels of Death

  Stolen in the Night

  LOVE, LIES, and MURDER

  GARY C. KING

  PINNACLE BOOKS

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  ABANDONED HUSBAND . . . OR DECEITFUL KILLER?

  Also by Gary C. King

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Author’s Note

  Part 1 - NASHVILLE

  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

  Part 2 - MEXICO

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Part 3 - BACK TO NASHVILLE

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Copyright Page

  For Teresita,

  Always

  The heart is deceitful above all things,

  and desperately wicked: Who can know it?

  —Jeremiah 17:9

  Well, old man, I will tell you news of your

  son. Give me your blessing: truth will come

  to light; murder cannot be hid long—a man’s

  son may, but at the length truth will out.

  —William Shakespeare,

  The Merchant of Venice,

  Act 2, Scene 2

  Acknowledgments

  My sincere, heartfelt gratitude is especially reserved for my immediate family. Without their full support during the writing of this book, in which they endured months of inconvenience as I isolated myself from them and forced them to virtually live on their own, this book would not have been possible. I am especially grateful to my wife, Teresita, who persuaded me to embrace this project and helped me see what a great story it really was, even though she knew it would cause us to live our own separate lives until it was finished. Thanks also to Kirsten and Sarah, who were always there when I needed them most!

  A very special thank-you goes to Kevin James Bell, a very dear and close family friend who, through his love and devotion to me and my family, repeatedly came to my rescue and helped fulfill some of my duties and obligations when I was unable to do so myself, and for helping keep my family unit in top form during my self-imposed isolation. The world needs more people like Kevin!

  I would also like to thank Chief Ronal Serpas, of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, along with his staff, for their cooperation during the writing of this book. I also want to acknowledge the dedicated work and service of Sergeant Patrick Postiglione and Detective Bill Pridemore, veteran homicide detectives who were named Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s Investigators of the Year for 2005 for their effort in bringing Perry March to justice and for providing closure to a case that, at times, seemed like it might never be solved, and to Captain Mickey Miller and Detective David Miller, retired.

  I would also like to acknowledge the very fine work of the reporters at the Tennessean who followed this story day in and day out. It was through their great work that I was able to stay informed at a distance of the continuing developments of this fascinating case. Willy Stern also did an outstanding job in his two-part series “A Good Thing Gone Bad,” which appeared in the Nashville Scene, and whose work actually assisted the police in locating sources that they had been unable to find. Stern’s articles were instrumental in providing a basis for some of the historical aspects concerning the March family. The Nashville City Paper, CBS News’ 48 Hours, Court TV, and the work of a number of other news agencies, too numerous to mention here, are all worthy of acknowledgment. Attribution is provided throughout the book where information from the aforementioned sources has been used. Thanks also to Jorge Jaramillo, of the Associated Press, for his assistance with the photos used in this book.

  I also want to thank my longtime literary agent, Peter Miller, of PMA Literary & Film Management, for bringing Michaela Hamilton, Executive Editor at Kensington Books, and me together again for this project. Michaela bought and edited my first book, Blood Lust: Portrait of a Serial Sex Killer, in 1992, when she was at Penguin USA, and was instrumental in making it a great success. Michaela’s integrity, professionalism, and business savvy in the publishing industry are without reproach, and I couldn’t be happier working with her again.

  Last, but definitely not least, I would like to gratefully acknowledge Stephanie Finnegan for the exceptional and thorough job she did copyediting the manuscript. I’m sure that it was no easy task, but Stephanie’s effort and attention to detail served to greatly improve the final product. Thanks, Stephanie!

  Author’s Note

  The book that you are now reading is a true crime story. It is not the typical true crime story that attempts to titillate the reader with gruesome or overly sensational details, because a body was never found. There was, nonetheless, a murder that was committed—according to the victim’s family, the police, a prosecutor, and a jury—as well as a host of other alleged serious crimes, including a kidnapping, con artist schemes, shady real estate deals in which elderly women were charmed and duped into turning over their life savings to an unscrupulous sociopath, and a murder-for-hire plot that made this story one of the most compelling that I have ever told. It is my hope, my intention, really, that this book will transcend the typical true crime genre and move the reader into the realm of a gripping and captivating human interest story involving two wealthy professionals who seemed to have everything, and the numerous lives that were destroyed due to the unfortunate chain of events that were set in motion following a purposeless homicide—an ultimate tragedy if ever there was one.

  The characters in this real-life drama include former Nashville, Tennessee, attorney Perry March, whose wife, Janet, literally disappeared without a trace. According to all accounts, she did not leave a note behind, nor did she instruct
anyone to convey a message from her to anyone—not even an attorney to deliver divorce papers to her husband on her behalf. She simply vanished, leaving Perry and her children amid an unusual turn of events that would eventually find the lawyer living an entirely new life in Mexico, presumably to be able to make a living and evade public scrutiny in the United States.

  Portions of this story were related to me by residents of La Manzanilla, Mexico, who were knowledgeable about certain aspects of the bizarre case surrounding Perry March. The story will follow Perry March as he attempted to assimilate into his new environment, his various alleged schemes that revolved around shady real estate deals made with retired expatriate women, and how he became involved, along with two other attorneys that he retained, in getting his children returned to him after the children’s maternal grandparents, armed with a visitation order and the cooperation and assistance of a Mexican judge, who had the children picked up at their school, whisked them out of Mexico and brought them back to the United States without March’s knowledge or approval.

  This story first came to my attention in 2002, as it was still developing, and due to prior contractual commitments on other book projects, I could not get involved at that time. However, by the time the case broke in 2005, the timing for my involvement was just right. I was just finishing up the manuscript for Stolen in the Night, my book about the Joseph Edward Duncan III case, and I was actively looking for a story that was markedly different from anything that I had ever written before. The Perry March case fit that bill perfectly.

  Though at times the story might seem like fiction—how could a story like this have really happened?—I want to take this opportunity to assure my readers that all of the incidents portrayed herein are indeed factual and all of the characters depicted are real people. The research needed to bring this story to fruition included hundreds of hours of research, and interviews with people who were close to the case and the investigations. I have attempted to present the facts of the case as they are known and as they have been presented to the public in various media formats, including newspapers, magazines, tabloids, television and radio news and entertainment programs, as well as what happened in the courtroom at the various stages that this case has gone through. Some of the dialogue that appears herein is based on statements that were made in the various news media mentioned above, as well as from my own interviews with certain individuals. The dialogue quoted from news sources includes, but is not limited to, the following: the Tennessean, the City Paper, Court TV, Nashville Scene, CBS News’ 48 Hours, CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, the National Enquirer, and a host of other sources, including police documents, transcripts of taped conversations, and trial documents. I have made every possible effort to present the story as historically accurate as possible. Because of the story’s complexity, I elected to tell it in more or less chronological order for the sake of clarity and to enable the reader to relive it, if you will, in the order that it occurred.

  —G.C.K.

  Part 1

  NASHVILLE

  Chapter 1

  The road to Nashville wealth, affluence, and fame is not an easy road to traverse, and is one that is often filled with broken deals, hardship, disappointment, and outright failure. Those who are able to scratch and claw their way out of the ranks of the masses to realize their dreams are few. To the average tourist, the social class divisions in Nashville are not readily apparent; quite the contrary, however, to those who reside there and are trying to make it to the top of the ranks by attempting to break out of the mold of the common folk. It is one thing to make it in Nashville—quite another to make it only to be literally chased out of town—like the Native Americans of the Mississippian culture, there one day and gone the next. But that is precisely what happened to financial attorney and self-proclaimed genius Perry Avram March.

  Nashville, by and large, is a charming, friendly city, where people smile at each other and occasionally greet each other on the street, as is somewhat common among Southerners. Most of the lifelong residents have more than a bit of a Southern twang in their voices, and it is relatively easy to spot the more recent transplants because, unless they are from the South, they lack the telltale accent. In the past decade Nashville has attracted a lot of “Northerners.” Nashville’s former mayor and the state’s current governor, Phil Bredesen, moved to Tennessee from Massachusetts in 1975. Homes are still moderately priced, and the cost of living is considered reasonable. Although it can be hot and humid, the weather, overall, is typically mild. Nashville is home to several major colleges and universities, including Vanderbilt, Meharry Medical School, Fisk, and Tennessee State. Although Nashville has become very cosmopolitan over the years and boasts a relatively low crime rate, compared to other cities of its population, it is, nonetheless, a metropolis that is not unlike many other cities of its size—busy with traffic and tourists, the usual hustle and bustle of the rush hours, gang activity, graffiti and tagging, drive-by shootings, disappearances, and murders. In short, the unfriendly side of Nashville can easily chew you up and spit you out, and often does.

  As with most tourist-intensive cities, the darker side of Nashville is glossed over and nearly hidden by the neon lights of the many nightclubs, performance stages, bars, and restaurants. In The District, located in the downtown area along Second Avenue and the historic Broadway area, disco à la the 1970s and 1980s can be found at Graham Central Station; additionally, numerous restaurants, chic boutiques, and microbreweries are located there. The District is known as the liveliest entertainment area of the city. Music Row is a colorful area with its aspiring musicians, singers, songwriters, twenty-nine major record labels, 150 recording studios, and other diversions, and many who live there contend that it is the music industry that really drives the city and makes it interesting. Most people can be easily taken in by Nashville’s Southern charm, scenic beauty, great food, and the warmth of many of its people.

  As residents of Nashville awoke on Thursday, August 15, 1996, the mercury was in the low 60s, and the humidity a comfortable 50 percent as its inhabitants sat down for their morning coffees and breakfasts. Although a light breeze stirred the sometimes stagnant air quality, the local weather reporters were predicting a high temperature of around 90 for later in the afternoon, with humidity levels reaching near 100 percent—it would be sticky and miserable as the day wore on.

  On that same day, Perry March, thirty-five, was still a successful Nashville lawyer employed at his father-in-law’s firm, Levine, Mattson, Orr & Geracioti, and his beautiful, dark-haired wife, Janet Gail Levine March, thirty-three, an accomplished artist and children’s book illustrator, was still alive. They lived together in their mansion dream home, which Janet herself designed, situated on four acres on Blackberry Road, in the posh, upscale community of Forest Hills, located a few miles southwest of Nashville, sandwiched midway between Interstate 40 and Interstate 65. They resided there with their two beautiful children, five-year-old Samson, affectionately known as “Sammy,” and two-year-old Tzipora, named after her paternal grandmother, Zipora, and known as “Tzipi.” By all appearances, the children seemed happy, healthy, and contented, and enjoyed the companionship provided by their part-time Russian nanny, Ella Goldshmid, who adored them. When they weren’t with Ella, Sammy and Tzipi were often with their maternal grandparents, Lawrence “Larry” and Carolyn Levine, which allowed Perry and Janet the freedom they desired to get out and socialize with a circle of friends and acquaintances that included some of West Nashville’s most high-flying young Jewish couples. To those looking in from the outside, the Marches appeared to be a near-perfect family that had everything going for them and, materially at least, everything they could possibly want. That all changed, however, on that fateful day when Janet disappeared without a trace.

  Whenever Perry and Janet March had a beef with each other, which had become more and more frequent as they neared the end of their nine years of marriage, it was their custom to always take their arguments outside onto the de
ck of their French-style house so that Sammy and Tzipi would not have to be subjected to their parents’ shouting matches. Perry was described by associates as a bright, aggressive, and tenacious financial attorney who sometimes had a short fuse. Financial attorneys are typically involved in commercial litigation, real estate, and business organizations, transactions and contracts, and their area of the legal world is often a stressful one. While it was not certain that Perry’s stress at work had been unleashed and transmuted into yet another fight with Janet on Thursday evening, August 15, 1996, at home, it remained a distinct possibility. Janet, too, could be hot-tempered and easy to set off, and was known to be able to escalate a mere squabble into a heated argument as quickly as Perry. Whatever they fought about that evening was known only to Perry and Janet, and it would be some time yet before the pieces to their jigsaw puzzle could be sorted out and put together.

  What was known about that fateful day was that Janet spent much of it at home overseeing the work of two cabinetmakers, John McAlister and John Richie. Perry, who had come home from work a little early that afternoon, had announced himself by greeting Janet and the cabinetmakers, and then entertained himself and the children outside. The two cabinetmakers were employed by Classic Interior and Design, and had been summoned to the Marches’ $650,000 home on Blackberry Road to complete warranty work on wooden countertops that they had installed on an earlier date.

  Janet’s demands were sometimes considered unreasonable, and they were perceived as such by the two tradesmen that afternoon as she supervised the countertop repairs, according to McAlister’s and Richie’s recollections. She had become so vocal, it was later recalled, that Perry had to come inside to calm her down. McAlister and Richie, unsettled by her behavior, finished their work as quickly as possible and packed up their tools and left the March residence at approximately 5:00 P.M. Besides Perry and the children, McAlister and Richie were the last people to see Janet March alive.