A 69-year-old woman was sentenced to 30 years in jail for plotting to kill her husband in their suburban Chicago home more than three decades ago. Prosecutors claimed she plotted to murder her husband because she wanted to marry another man, a Chicago police officer, and didn’t want a divorce because she was afraid of losing all of his money.
Inside the couple’s Inverness house, Carl Gaimari was shot with his own gun. According to the Chicago Tribune, two masked burglars broke into the family home in a staged home invasion, tied up Greco and her three children in a closet, and killed Gaimari when he arrived home from work.
The identities of the two gunmen have never been revealed. When Jacquelyn “Jackie” Greco’s husband, Carl Gaimari, was slain during a home invasion in April 1979, she and her children were devastated. However, the case remained unresolved for three decades until new evidence pushed the investigation forward.
Carl’s murder is one of three incidents highlighted in the programme ‘Deadly Women: Hit and Run‘ on Investigation Discovery. In the end, the investigators discovered that Jackie was a key figure in the murder of her first husband. So, if you’re curious as to why Jackie went to such lengths, we’ve got you covered.
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Who Is Jacquelyn “Jackie” Greco and How Did She Kill Her Husband?
Carl Gaimari had been married to Jacquelyn “Jackie” Greco for four years, and the pair had four children together, the oldest of whom was 15 years old at the time of the incident. Carl worked as a broker at the Chicago Board of Trade, and the family lived in Inverness, Illinois.
Two masked guys broke into the ranch house for a burglary around 12:30 p.m. on April 30, 1979. Three of the four children, as well as Jackie, were bound and placed in a closet.
Carl was taken into the basement by the men, where he was shot multiple times with his own firearms. When the oldest daughter arrived from school, she opened the closet door and let Jackie and the kids out.
Investigators were looking into Carl and Jackie’s relationship at the time. Carl, 34, had a bad temper, had been contacting a divorce attorney, and had a lover on the side, they discovered. Jackie was having an adulterous affair with Sam Greco, a police officer at the time.
When Sam moved in with Jackie less than a week after the murder, the family assumed she was involved, and they married three months later. Jackie was not arrested, however, because there was no concrete evidence linking her to the murder.
The investigation eventually went cold, but in 2012, officials were granted authorization to wiretap Jackie’s phone calls. Her marriage to Sam had dissolved by that time, and she was living with her fiancé and brother in Michigan. The case was finally cracked open after subsequent chats between Jackie and her sister, Elsie Fry.
Jackie appeared to involve herself with the murder in a chat dated February 2013. Jackie had proposed seeking a means to kill Carl about two months before he was killed, according to Elsie. Jackie looked to be pleading with Elsie not to inform the cops about the 1979 talk, and she acknowledged to knowing about Carl’s death in April in the 2013 conversation.
“I told them you had informed me they were going to break in and tie you up, then put you in the closet and kill Carl,” Elsie said during the phone call. They know you didn’t do it, they know you were aware of it, and you knew what was going to happen.”
Jackie had previously described a chat she had with Sam Greco a few months before the murder. Carl’s life was threatened at the moment, according to Sam’s informant, but the trader dismissed it.
When pressed, Jackie confirmed that there was no informant present and that she had advised Sam to leave Carl alone. “I tried to stop it,” Jackie added. I didn’t want him to die, and I didn’t want him to die. You must have faith in me. That was something I didn’t want to do to my children.”
Other witnesses eventually spoke to the police about Jackie’s actions leading up to the murder. Jackie talked about wanting to get rid of Carl and asked him about a medicine that may simulate a heart attack, according to Elsie’s son-in-law, around a year before Carl’s murder.
Jackie wanted to marry Sam but didn’t want to divorce Carl since she wouldn’t have enough money, according to the prosecution. As a result, the mother of four devised a plan to kill her husband.
What Happened to Jacquelyn “Jackie” Greco and Where Is She Now?
Jackie, who was in her late sixties at the time, was arrested in 2013. Sam was never charged with the crime and died in 2019. A jury took two hours to convict her guilty of first-degree murder after more than three years. Jackie was sentenced to 30 years in jail in December 2016.
She maintained her innocence during the sentencing hearing, claiming that she and Carl had reunited at the time, saying, “I loved my husband.” My husband was devoted to me. We were torn apart, yet we were able to reassemble ourselves. I didn’t want to separate my children from their father.”
Jackie’s conviction was overturned, and a fresh trial was ordered by an Illinois Appellate Court in July 2020. She pled guilty to the murder in February 2021 and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Jackie is still detained at Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Illinois, according to prison records. In March 2024, she will be eligible for parole.
Watch Deadly Women: Hit and Run Season 11, Episode 6 on on Investigation Discovery.
