Carl Anthony Gaimari, a 34-year-old white male, was tragically murdered on April 30, 1979, in his home in Inverness, Illinois. Gaimari, a commodities broker at the Chicago Board of Trade, was found shot to death in his basement. The crime scene was discovered by his 16-year-old daughter, who returned home to find her father dead and her mother, Jacquelyn "Jackie" Gaimari, along with three younger siblings, tied up and locked in a closet.
The investigation revealed that two gunmen had
broken into the Gaimari home, tied up Jackie and the children, and then shot Carl Gaimari with his own guns. Initially, the crime appeared to be a home invasion gone wrong. However, further investigation uncovered a more sinister plot. It was later revealed that Jacquelyn Gaimari had orchestrated the murder of her husband. She had conspired with her lover, Sam Greco, a Chicago police officer, to have Carl killed so they could be together. Greco moved into the Gaimari home just a week after the murder, and the couple married a few months later.
Jacquelyn Gaimari was eventually arrested and charged with her husband's murder. In 2016, she was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The conviction was based largely on incriminating statements she made decades after the crime, including a recorded phone conversation with her sister in which she admitted to knowing about the plot to kill Carl. Despite her conviction, Jacquelyn maintained that she had changed her mind about the murder plan and had tried to withdraw from it.
In 2020, the Illinois Appellate Court overturned Jacquelyn Gaimari's conviction, ruling that the trial court had improperly failed to instruct the jury to consider her defense that she had withdrawn from the plot. The court ordered a new trial, allowing Jacquelyn to present her defense more fully. Throughout the years, the identities of the two gunmen who carried out the murder have never been publicly disclosed, and they remain at large. The case remains a poignant example of betrayal and the complexities of criminal justice.
