Lucille Miller

Lucille Marie Miller (née Maxwell; January 17, 1930 – November 4, 1986) was a Canadian-American housewife and mother who was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of her husband. Prosecutors alleged Miller was inspired by the eponymous plot device of the film Double Indemnity, a provision in which the proceeds of a life insurance policy pay double the face value for accidental deaths.

Joan Didion wrote a 1966 essay about the case, "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream", which appeared originally in The Saturday Evening Post as "How Can I Tell Them There's Nothing Left" (a quote from Lucille Miller the morning of the fire); it was included in her 1968 book Slouching Towards Bethlehem.

Background At the time of the murder, Lucille Miller was just a few months shy of 35 years old, married to dentist Dr. Gordon "Cork" Miller, a mother of three, and pregnant with their fourth child.

The initial evidence matched her story, until authorities more closely examined the skid marks, which were much shorter than they would be in a loss of control as Lucille reported. They also noticed an empty can of gasoline lying on its side on the back seat, while the charred milk cartons were still standing upright and not jostled by the sudden stop. The car was still in low gear (unusual for a 35mph crash), and was also dug in, implying that someone had tried to push it the rest of the way over the embankment.

Further investigation led to the discovery of a $125,000 (some sources say $140,000) life insurance policy with a double indemnity clause for accidental death. The couple was also found to be roughly $64,000 in debt, including a nearly $30,000 mortgage on the Bella Vista house. Lucille was also discovered to have had an affair with lawyer Arthwell Hayton, a widower father of three, one of them a friend of Debra, In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court (with F. Lee Bailey as part of her legal team) dismissed the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted.

Lucille was also "hopelessly entangled" with her children until she died of breast cancer on November 4, 1986, as Debra reported in a 2006 newspaper article she wrote about her mother's case.