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Adopted daughter hires friends to kill stepmother and father
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Kristi Koslow - Mugshot
In the early morning hours of Thursday, March 12, 1992, Caren Koslow, 40 and Jack Koslow, 48, were beaten into unconsciousness and left for dead. The couple had been attacked by two hit man recruited by Jack’s adopted daughter, Kristi Koslow, 17 years old at the time.
Brian Salter, Kristi’s boyfriend and an acquaintance, Jeffrey Dillingham, both 19-years-old, entered the Koslow home at 4100 Clarke Avenue, in the River Crest community of Fort Worth, Texas in the early morning hours. The men arrived with a drawing of the 4,000-square-foot home and the code to disable an alarm system both provided by Kristi. Once inside, Jeffrey and Brian forced the couple to the floor. Jeffrey beat them with a steel pry bar and Brian slashed their throats with a hunting knife.
Blows to Caren’s head broke her skull and jaw. The slashing of her neck nearly decapitated her.
The murderers left the house believing Jack was dead from the wounds he sustained on his head and neck. At around 4:15 a.m., Jack regained consciousness, staggered to a neighbor's house, and called police. Investigators found blood spattered on the floor, ceiling and all four walls of their bedroom.
Court testimony showed that Kristi wanted her stepmother and father dead because she didn't get along with them after her father remarried, and that she planned to gain a $12 million inheritance. Kristi promised to pay the two young men $1 million each for murdering her father and stepmother.
"But if you heard his confession, which was audio taped, it would just chill you to the bone because it was so unemotional," said one of the prosecutors, Robert Mayfield, referring to Jeffrey. "He described the death of this poor woman by saying, as I recall, 'She was screaming and I hit her with the pry bar and she continued to scream and I hit her in the throat and then she laid (sic) down and let it pass.' Not a lick of emotion," Mayfield said. "Dillingham did not even know the victim. But it didn't matter to him. He was to be handsomely rewarded for his actions.
"I just wanted to get money. I wanted my mom to have money," Kristi said more than a decade ago, now sitting in a Texas prison.
In a confession of her involvement in the murder plot, Kristi described herself as being a "Robin Hood" to help Brian pay bills for his ailing mother and have a nice, new car in which to drive her around Fort Worth.
Kristi Koslow was convicted of capital murder but was spared the death sentence by the jury. Kristi was sentenced on June 30, 1994 and today sits behind bars in Gatesville, Texas, at Mountain View prison for women. She will not be eligible for parole until 2027, at the age of 52.
Jeff Dillingham rejected a plea bargain and was convicted of capital murder by a jury and later killed by lethal injection on November 1, 2000. A month after his accomplice received the death penalty; Brian Salter agreed to testify against his girlfriend in exchange for a life sentence. He is currently serving his prison time at Alfred Hughes prison for men in Gatesville, Texas. He too will be eligible for parole in 2027. He will be 54.
Rest in peace Caren…you are missed.
Sources:
- Carson, David. Texas Execution Information. Posted on 3 November, 2000. Updated on 9January 2008.Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's office, Associated Press, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.Texas Executions Online.http://www.txexecutions.org
- Daily Texan Online. http: //media.www.dailytexanonline.com
- Douglas Jr., Jack “Famous Crimes: The killing of Caren Koslow.” 12 March 2008. Star Telegram Online. http://startelegram.typepad.com
- Pro Death Penalty Online. http://www.prodeathpenalty.com
- Mertens, Jennifer. “Kristi Koslow.” Trutv Online. http://www.trutv.com
- “Woman Gets Life in Killing of Stepmother.” 2 July1994. New York Times Online. http://query.nytimes.com
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