Each One Gets a Little Easier
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Or, maybe I should just kill Kelso. She’s got the two million bucks I need and she’s in her eighties, she could die any day now anyway. What the hell, she won’t miss a couple of more years.
Of course, there’s also my greedy Carla. As his new wife lay snoring next to him, he felt his anger rise. God, she’s no better than Linda. All either of them ever wanted was money. I could kill her and her two bratty kids. I could just reach over and.... No, I have to control myself. I can’t have two wives die within a month of each other.
Landis’ thoughts turned to his favorite movie character, Tommy, from what he considered to be the best movie ever made, Goodfellas. Now there was a man’s man. With Tommy it was simple. He took what he wanted when he wanted it, and if you got in his way, you died. I’m that kind of man. I’ve proven it time and again. When I started my career, I wanted money, lots of money. That made it simple. Clients who had money died, period. With my brilliance and determination it was almost too easy to impose my will on those senile old people. Heck, it wasn’t even hard to kill them. Thanks to my ingenuity, and their stupidity, I’ve been able to steal millions. Tommy would be so proud.
But I have made one mistake. Although when you think about it, it really wasn’t my fault. If my clients hadn’t made it so easy for me to talk them into making me both the executor and trustee of their wills, I wouldn’t be in this position. All I had to do was advertise that I’m an estate lawyer with low rates and everyone came running. They didn’t even know me, yet they trusted me with everything they had. But I still should have stuck with my scheme; I should have waited until they were dead before I stole from them. But I couldn’t wait. I wanted, even deserved their money so I took from the living. That’s where I screwed up. Shouldn’t have gotten greedy.
I suppose I could sell some of my assets to pay Chelsa. Let me think, I’ve three motorcycles, four cars, a motor home, two airplanes, an apartment building, two town houses and a single family house, all courtesy of my clients. Maybe I should sell some of the real estate and use the money to get Chelsa and the others off my back. No. I’ve worked too hard to give up what I have. Besides, even if I managed to come up with the million I need to get Chelsa off my back, Bradington, Brenda, Salter and Nichols would still be able to drop the dime on me at any time. I might as well face it; I have to kill at least four people, maybe more. After all, I’ve already gotten away with killing three others. How much more proof do I need that I’m far more intelligent than those inept cops?
As he got ready for the day, Landis decided it was best, at least for the time being, to stick with yesterday’s plan. As he went to the garage and retrieved a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol from his locked gun safe, Landis remembered stealing the gun from the estate of Allan Berryhill. At least there’s no record of me ever having this gun, makes it the perfect gun to use for murder. Placing the gun in his briefcase, Landis thought that it was a shame that he’d have to dispose of it today, but he had no choice. Keeping anything that ties me to both a theft and a murder is an unacceptable risk.
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About the Book
Attorney Wiley Tom Landis was in trouble, deep trouble.
For years he’d been successfully stealing large amounts of money from his elderly clients. But now his crimes were catching up with him. Landis knew he had only himself to blame. His lust for women and the good life had caused him to lose all control, so much so that he had completely disregarded the parameters of what he’d believed to be his perfect theft scheme.
Three of his clients were clamoring for the money he’d stolen from them. He knew he would either have to find a way to come up with the money, or he’d have to kill them. It was really just that simple. After all, he’d already killed three of his clients, what was a few more?
Of course there was one other possibility. He was the trustee of the estate of one of his rich, elderly, widowed clients. If she were to have an “accident”, he would have the money he needed to pay off the others. One murder instead of three.
But he still had a problem. Witnesses. Four of them. If the police investigations got any hotter, he knew they’d turn him in to save themselves. No question of that, hell, if he could, he’d turn them in for his own protection. Problem was, in every single case he was either the killer or conspirator.
Time to face facts. For his own protection, he would have to murder at least five more people. The only question in his mind this morning,
“Who’s first?”
About the Author
After retiring from the Denver District Attorney’s Office as a Senior Criminal Investigator after a successful career, Gary Pangus wrote this book chronicling one of his most interesting and challenging cases. Prior to retiring, Pangus was recognized as Investigator of The Year twice for his work on using Racketeering statutes to combine multi-jurisdictional cases into one case so that it could be tried in one jurisdiction, ultimately resulting in longer sentences for the convicted felons.
Mr. Pangus is responsible for putting together a multi-state criminal case which resulted in the longest sentence in the history of the
This book is based on one of the last cases that Mr. Pangus investigated. Part fact, part fiction, Each One Gets a Little Easier tells how Wiley Tom Landis, a lawyer specializing in probate cases, devised a near perfect scheme to steal millions of dollars from the estates of his elderly clients. Perfect except for one flaw, his own greed.
When Landis’ greed and obsessive lust for women caused him to violate the parameters of his scheme, his thefts were detected. Rather than go to prison for what he knew would be a lengthy sentence, Landis turned to murder.
During the course of the book, Pangus goes on to describe a similar scam conducted by another attorney who stole large amounts of money from his clients, leaving the reader with the question; “With at least these two in Denver, how many others could there be nationwide?”