Black Widow’ Dies Before Facing Charges

Charlotte, North Carolina - An elderly grandmother who left a trail of five dead husbands in five states over decades has died in Louisiana after an illness, her son-in-law said. Terry Sanders said Betty Neumar died in a hospital in Louisiana. Stanly County, N.C., Sheriff Rick Burris said authorities are looking into her death. The 79-year-old, who earned the nickname “Black Widow,” was facing three counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. She was accused of trying to hire someone to kill her fourth husband, Harold Gentry, in the weeks before his death in 1986. Authorities discovered Neumar had been married five times since the 1950s, and each union ended with her husband’s death.  More