Richard Abeln, 48 probable suicide in jail after murder-for-hire conviction
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Officials release details in death of Abeln
BY MICHAEL SHAW Post-Dispatch
12/31/2002 08:59 PM
Federal corrections officials confirmed Tuesday that Richard Abeln, serving
life in prison for the murder-for-hire of his wife, died in his cell in
Louisiana. But they stopped short of calling it suicide.
Abeln's body was found Sunday, hanging from a noose fashioned from a prison
uniform and attached to a barred window.
It was one of few details released by authorities, who declined even to say
whether anyone else was in the two-man cell at the time.
Abeln, 48, former owner of a trucking company in St. Louis, had attempted to
kill himself in custody at least five times before but was not on a suicide
watch when he died.
He had pleaded guilty in 1999 to contracting his wife's murder two years
earlier. The case included two sensational trials for an accomplice,
exposing an elaborate plot to kill Debra Abeln.
An investigation into Richard Abeln's death, including autopsy, will take
several weeks, said Jane Haschemeyer, executive assistant at the U.S.
penitentiary in Pollack, La.
During an accomplice's trial last year, Abeln testified about his numerous
past suicide attempts while housed in jails in the Metro East area from 1998
until last year.
Twice he slashed his wrists and wound up in the hospital. Another time, he
tried hanging himself with the elastic from his underwear.
He left suicide notes on two occasions, each an attempt to cast himself in
the best light possible.
After the most severe attempt, he was moved to the Clinton County Jail and
placed under 24-hour suicide watch. He remained there for more than a year
while waiting to testify against an accomplice in the murder, authorities
said.
But once that trial ended and he was transferred to Louisiana, he wasn't
placed on suicide watch, Haschemeyer said. That's because he didn't exhibit
suicidal tendencies since arriving at the high-security, 1,500-inmate prison
a year ago.
He was transferred there after the closing of his wife's murder case with a
guilty conviction for Guy Westmoreland of Florissant, Richard Abeln's friend
and partner in a drug distribution scheme.
Debra Abeln was killed on Dec. 27, 1997, at St. Louis Downtown Airport in
Cahokia by DeAndre Lewis of St. Louis. Lewis shot her in the chest while her
husband and youngest son watched.
Richard Abeln testified that he hired Lewis through Westmoreland.
Why did Abeln want his wife dead? The motive was speculated upon for more
than a year before authorities said he wanted to avoid a costly divorce and
the possible loss of his trucking company.
He had been running drugs with Westmoreland from Texas on his personal
airplane and had enlisted Westmoreland's help in the murder with a claim
that Debra Abeln had discovered their drug operation.
Westmoreland was sentenced to life in prison for the murder, as was Lewis,
who pleaded guilty of the crime. Westmoreland also was convicted in 1999 of
drug charges.
Prosecutors initially sought a death penalty for Westmoreland and Lewis.
But before Westmoreland's murder trial, they discovered that one of the
principal investigators from the Illinois State Police had had an affair
with Westmoreland's wife. Prosecutors dropped the death penalty bid because
of the taint of the affair; the investigator was fired.