PLANNING VIOLENCE: MURDER FOR HIRE (crime story)

 While violent acts always seem irrational on the surface they may actually involve careful planning and thought. Nowhere are elements of preparation and design more apparent than in elaborate plots involving murder for hire. Take the case of Paul William Driggers, 54, an Idaho man who offered $10,000 for someone to kill his ex-wife because he was facing child molestation and gun charges and because he wanted his children back. Driggers contacted an associate in prison and asked to be put in touch with a person who could do a job for him. He got the name of a third man who was then living in California. In April 2006, using the name “Huey,” Driggers contacted the California man

and induced him to come to Idaho to discuss a “business proposition.” Driggers and the man met at a Coeur d’Alene restaurant and discussed a number of illegal things they could do, including counterfeiting, producing precursor chemicals for the manufacture of methamphetamine, identity theft, and false charity campaigns. After the two left the restaurant, Driggers told the California man that he wanted his ex-wife killed and offered the man $10,000 for the murder. Instead of committing the crime, the California man contacted state police. When the two later met in a Lowe’s parking lot, the California man was wearing a wire. Driggers showed him photographs of his ex-wife, and the two discussed the details of the murder, including using walkie-talkies to communicate, and how to dispose of the body. Driggers was convicted of attempted murder on February 23, 2007. The Drigger’s case is not unique. Richard Kaplan, a former New Brunswick official who plotted to kill his wife, was already serving a federal prison sentence for accepting more than $30,000 in bribes. While in prison he pursued a murder-for-hire plot through a fellow inmate. Rather than commit the crime, the inmate alerted authorities and became a cooperating witness in an FBI undercover investigation. Kaplan wanted his wife dead because of money issues and the belief that she was planning to get a divorce. Not long after arriving at the prison, he began telling a fellow inmate that he wanted to fi nd someone who could kill his wife and make it look like an accident. He told the inmate he was willing to pay $25,000 for the murder.