“Black Widows and Legal Battles: The Shocking Tale of Margaret Rudin”
H3: The Legal Battle of Margaret Rudin
Women who have killed their husbands are often called Black Widows by the press. This is because female black widow spiders eat their mates during sex. It simply can’t be overstated, nature is truly a horror movie and we don’t respect it enough. If we did, we would stop going to the deepest depths of the oceans.
H3: Margaret Rudin’s Fight for Justice
For the most part, Black Widows kill for financial gain, which is a great argument for ratifying the Equal Rights Act. In the case of Margaret Rudin, money was definitely a possible motive. Rudin was convicted of the 1994 murder of her millionaire husband Ron Rudin, and would go on to spend 20 years behind bars. Throughout her time in prison, Rudin staunchly maintained her innocence. Where is Margaret Rudin today? She’s a free woman.
H3: The Legal Battle
Where is Margaret Rudin today? She’s taking legal action against the people who put her in prison.
According to KLAS 8 News Now, Rudin is suing the state of Nevada for wrongful conviction. In May 2022, Rudin’s sentence was vacated by U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware who ruled that she “received ineffective legal representation from her late defense attorney, Michael Amado.” Two years later, Rudin is trying to make up for the more than 8,000 days she spent in prison.
H3: Seeking Justice
On May 2, 2024, Adam Breeden, Rudin’s attorney, said in a statement, “Today in her early 80s, Margaret Rudin intends to prove, under a Nevada statute amended in 2019 to address the rights of persons wrongfully convicted, that she was not involved either directly or indirectly in her husband’s death and did not commit the crime.” The lawsuit is seeking compensation for the wrongful imprisonment as well as housing and insurance assistance and payment for her attorneys.
H3: Ron Rudin’s Mysterious Disappearance
What happened to Ron Rudin?
Ron made his money during a construction boom in Las Vegas in the 1980s and ‘90s. While he wasn’t a huge gambler, Ron did appreciate a nice set of cowboy boots and a pretty lady on his arm. When he and Rudin met in 1987, they had both been married four times. In an interview with 20/20, Rudin said she had “never met anybody better and slicker and smarter and suaver than he was.”
H3: The Investigation
Their marriage wasn’t perfect and at one point Ron suggested that if anything should happen to him, a thorough investigation should be conducted if his death was met through violent means. Were that to be the case, any beneficiary in his will shouldn’t inherit any money. That didn’t last as Rudin’s share of Ron’s fortune steadily increased. Ron’s paranoia was attributed to a massive land deal he was involved in.
H3: The Vanishing Act
Ron was working on an RV resort called The Retreat at Lee Canyon, and many believe he approached the mob to secure funding for the deal. Rudin believes this is why Ron was never without a gun in the days leading up to his disappearance on Dec. 18, 1994. On that day, Rudin was at the grand opening of her antique store but when she got home, Ron was nowhere to be found.
H3: The Discovery
Nothing came of the investigation until a fisherman stumbled upon Ron’s skull on Jan. 21, 1995, 60 miles outside of Las Vegas. There were four bullet holes in it. His burned body was later discovered in a trunk and the murder weapon was found “by scuba divers at a scuba school in Lake Mead,” per ABC News, although police didn’t know about it for another year. Rudin couldn’t be connected to the gun.
H3: A Life on the Run
Prosecutors spent two years attempting to indict Rudin who in March 1997, decided to move. Due to the Black Widow moniker bestowed upon her, Rudin wasn’t able to find work in Las Vegas so she moved to Mexico. “The way [the investigation] was handled by police and prosecutors, I did not feel comfortable anymore because they can do whatever they want to do with somebody’s life. I wasn’t going to get a chance to prove myself,” she said. Technically, Rudin was on the run.
H3: Conclusion
Eventually she was caught and charged with her husband’s murder. While in prison she became an advocate for prison reform and the rights of prisoners. Still, she lost 20 years of her life to a system that treated her unfairly. Now, she’s hoping to recoup what she lost. About her time in prison, Rudin said, “The only way you can bear a lot of the things is you have to only think about what’s good still, what you have left still.” Hopefully she finds more good in the world.