Pulaski County Prosecutor Releases Documents In Orsini Murder Case

A month before she died of apparent heart failure in prison, Mary Lee Orsini confessed to the crime that introduced her to lawyer William McArthur, whose wife Orsini later had killed. Orsini died August eleventh while serving a life-without-parole sentence for the contract murder of McArthur`s wife, Alice, in 1982. The year before, McArthur had successfully defended Orsini in a grand jury inquiry into the death of Ron Orsini, Mary Lee`s third husband. To the surprise of many who had seen Orsini vehemently profess her innocence in her husband`s death, Orsini requested that Pulaski County prosecutors re-open the case of Ron Orsini`s murder. Pulaski County prosecutors Thursday released documents in which she admits in detail to killing Ron Orsini on March 12th, 1981. In 1983, after she was already in prison for Alice McArthur`s murder, Mrs. Orsini was convicted of killing her husband, but that conviction was thrown out on appeal. Alice McArthur was found shot to death at her home, two months after she was injured in an attempted car bombing. In a July first letter, Mrs. Orsini wrote at the McPherson Unit to Pulaski County Judge Chris Piazza. She thanked officials for sending her to prison, saying the sentence was "merciful for the evil I committed against Mrs. McArthur, others and the whole state of Arkansas."