FBI questioned Anna Nicole in a murder-for-hire plot

Last update: October 7, 2009 - 6:26 PM

The FBI investigated whether Anna Nicole Smith plotted to kill her tycoon husband's son as they battled for his father's fortune, newly released files show, but the former Playboy Playmate who died in 2007 was never prosecuted.

Smith's FBI records, obtained by the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, say the agency investigated Smith in 2000 and 2001 in a murder-for-hire plot targeting E. Pierce Marshall, who was fighting to keep Smith from collecting his father's oil wealth, valued in the hundreds of millions. The younger Marshall died three years ago of natural causes.

Smith was 26 when she wed the 89-year-old J. Howard Marshall II, owner of Great Northern Oil Co. They met while she was a topless dancer in Texas. He died of natural causes in 1995, little more than a year after they wed.

FBI agents interviewed Smith on July 3, 2000, and "Smith began crying and denied ever making such plans," a report said. She told agents she believed that the story about the plot was made up by a former lover angry that she had broken off their relationship, according to the files.

Sally Meloch, an assistant U.S. attorney, wrote the FBI in 2001 that there was "insufficient evidence" to establish a murder-for-hire plot.

Ron Rale, who was Smith's attorney, said of the murder-for-hire allegations: "Absolutely false. Never happened. End of story." AP

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