Born in Carpentersville, Illinois to an American Indian and a mother of Polish descent, Joyce Cohen’s tale takes in a journey from rags to riches to rags. A mother of one by a previous marriage, Joyce Lemay became the wife of a Jewish construction magnate named Stanley Cohen in 1981. A life of luxury – complete with a mansion in Coconut Grove, Miami, a 650-acre ranch in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and a private jet – followed but multiple affairs and Mrs Cohen’s cocaine addiction led to threats of divorce and a return to poverty. Joyce Cohen hired three men to kill her husband in 1986 and was sentenced to 25 years with a chance of parole in 2013. A parole board voted to extend her release date to 2048 in June that year and now, despite continuing to deny having had any involvement in the murder, this one-time friend of the country music singer Tanya Tucker looks set to die penniless in prison.
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Readers have their say
19 comments
If the U.S. judiciary is anywhere near as corrupt as the UK, which I am sure it is, this poor woman was set up.
Nope
Ms. Haigh,
Please don’t talk rubush. How do you know what happened in this case? We you there?
A big ”?” if you ask me
How do we know she is not innocent? All that money though and so badly behaved with cocaine. How very irresponsible. Meanwhile, why write about this? Instead you should support dear Gerry and Kate McCann in their campaign to find their beloved daughter Madeleine. Back Find Madeleine. It is shameful that you haven’t given over advertising to support them.
Looks pretty open and shut to me. She was a cocaine addict, her husband had had enough and was going to send her on her merry way. She now claims he was a drug money launderer and that’s why he got killed. NO – It’s quite simple, Stanley told her, she would leave the marriage as she came in and she snapped and had him killed in cold blood. She deserves to die in prison.
Amen. Joyce Cohen deserves to die in prison. Greedy gold digger. Stanley Cohen picked the wrong wife for sure.
You are probably right Fiona, but still, the operative word is “LOOKS” …..as in … it “appears” that it is an open and shut case. Unfortunately there have been many, many miscarriages of justice based on what has appeared to be an open and shut case. Because simple logic is on your side doesn’t necessarily mean that the fact are, too.
What is Guilbert saying – one minute attacking Victoria Haigh for suggesting Joyce Cohen was set-up. Rubbish, I believe was the comment. And then not a day later he is attacking Fiona for suggesting that Joyce Cohen was indeed the killer.
Is Guilbert just looking for an argument?
What about “poor” Joyce? Did she ever make parole? Twenty five years after her deadly scheme where is she?
I have just watched a TV show about the murder and the trial. It seems that she maybe guilty but in law the one thing that must be taken into account is the phrase “without reasonable doubt”. The whole case against Ms Cohen revolved around the testimony of a known criminal. One who failed many polygraph tests. The other criminals, supposedly involved, categorically deny ever meeting Ms Cohen. I think there is enough evidence in the case to have reasonable doubt
Exactly!!!! Guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and there is ALOT of doubt in this case!!!
I have to agree. There’s plenty of reasonable doubt and not enough forensic evidence. Two criminals say they don’t know her. One criminal says she was the master mind. I mean, really, that’s the evidence? The jury did not like her life style. I get it but that doesn’t make her a murderer. A testimony of a convicted criminal is unrealiable if no other evidence corroborates his testimony and that’s exactly what happened in this case. She should have walked free and out of the court with no criminal charges against her.
Joyce was really convicted because of a discarded tissue that contained mucus and traces of gun powder. The room and the body which she touch were full of residue from the shots fired. The mucus is from her crying. All you folks don’t know the farce that “justice” is in Florida. Come on vacation, leave on probation. This is a red neck state trying to pass for a tourist spot!
The linchpin was not only the tissue she used to wipe the gun but the gun belonged to the victim of which she had access, not the hitmen.
It’s the same ole story. There’s NO hope with DOPE. They made Joyce look bad. The bottom line is if you play with fire your going to get BURNED.
Ford Joyce bless her heart Joyce is a victim this guy is a is a nasty Rich pervert she should have never been with this guy she never knew nothing about cocaine when she was a young girl and said she got mixed up with this piece of crap it seems everything flies meaning they would have married anybody no matter who it is that’s sick Society what’s wrong with these preachers there’s so many sick perverts in this world and they just walk out and marry some you little young girl and they think that is okay that they won’t get in trouble anymore for being a pervert but they are still a pervert the stupid jerk jerk Stanley raped Joyce over and over again there’s no one never no one never did anything to help her to protect her did you little young girl needed to be protected she needed help this guy need to be arrested she needed support she needed help she need protection she needed care this world is full of perverts sickos they just want to marry their young girls and marry older women and they think that it’s okay they think they won’t get in trouble with the authorities anymore because there are married with some piece of married with married these PCS piece of craps are married now bull crap they’re still perverts we need to stop these people these preachers need to start married to Neil Young Girls to these perverts and older women to these perverts sicko perverts there’s they are a bunch of sex offenders they just want to Mary Lou young girls and older women us women are victims from these piece of crap perverts and sex offenders how horrible not only America this whole world needs to help this whole world needs help and say no nothing Mary these are sex offenders to these young women in these older women protect the women protect the young girls
Set Joyce free in the name of Jesus she is a victim of the stupid horrible sex Stanley what a horrible jerk sex offender set Joyce free in the name of Jesus whoever it may concern Joyce has wasted so much of her life Joyce had no no one protecting her from this debt burn horrible sex offender Stanley should have been locked up a long time ago it doesn’t matter how horrible jerk Rich is he’s horrible jerk sex offender they should have locked them up that’s what you need to do all these other sex offenders lock them up we must protect the women and the children from these horrible jokes sex offenders and horrible jokes of domestic violence
Tammy Marie Pinkney: Your opiniated rants would be more believable if you presented ANY evidence to support them.
And if you had a clue about how to use punctuation.
Joyce Cohen is Guilty because of Greed. I hope she Dies in Prison. She was a gold digging sleazy woman. I watched this unfold in 1986 in Miami as I lived there at the time. Rot in prison Joyce Cohen.