5 Real Life Murder Plots Too Weird Even For Hollywood

5

A Woman Catfished Her Parents And Boyfriend Into Murder

Jenelle Potter never had a lot of friends. She was lanky, had an annoying voice, was riddled with chronic health problems, and though she was well into her 30s, she still lived at home with her overprotective parents. In her free time, she did what many lonely people do: stare at the internet, waiting for something good to happen. It wasn't a good life. So when pharmacy clerk Tracy Greenwell took pity and introduced Potter to her circle of friends, things seemed to take a turn for the better. Until Potter decided that two of them had to die.

Despite being seen by most people as an awkward wallflower, Potter quickly bombarded her new friends with Gossip Girl levels of drama. She first started dating Jamie Curd, Greenwell's cousin, but rumors began flying that she was also secretly eyeing a different cousin, Billy Payne.

Zanandi BotesIf you can't be with the cousin you love, love the cousin you're with. -- Tennessee state motto

But Payne was in a relationship with another mutual friend, Billie Jean Hayworth, and the couple had a baby, so nothing scandalous happened. Then Potter revealed she was receiving menacing messages on Facebook, threatening both her and her parents. And she knew exactly who they were coming from: Hayworth, who was apparently so jealous of Potter's good looks that she decided to become a one-woman troll army.

Zanandi BotesStarting to look more like a "Dear Diary" entry.

Curd stood by Potter's accusations, but the other friends decided to back Hayworth, who as a new mom obviously didn't have the energy to cyberbully some shut-in she barely knew. Fortunately for Potter, she still had the emotional support of her parents ... as well as a Facebook friend named Chris, whom she claimed worked for the CIA (like her father Marvin used to).

Ultimately the feud was snuffed, in an unfortunately literal fashion. On January 31, 2012, Payne and Hayworth were found dead in their home. Both had been shot once in the head, execution-style. Payne's throat had been slit afterward, and Hayworth had been murdered while holding her baby in her lap. It wasn't long before authorities took Curd in for questioning. And that's when the whole CIA conspiracy plot kicked in ...

Zanandi Botes*SHYAMALAN*

4

Soap Opera Stars Starred In A Soap Opera Murder

Actor Guilherme de Padua and actress Daniela Perez were the stars of the '90s Brazilian soap opera Of Body And Soul. Not only were their characters having a steamy love affair onscreen, but they were also rumored to be rehearsing rather enthusiastically behind the scenes. But every soap fan knows that secret affairs never stay secret for very long. They also know what happens next: Someone is going to get killed.

Perez was stabbed 18 times, and police found signs of a black magic ritual performed at the murder site. Authorities arrested de Padua and his wife, Paula Thomaz. De Padua confessed to the murder, initially claiming that he had stabbed Perez over a dozen times with her own scissors ... in self-defense. Later, the police extracted a confession from Thomaz: She had been present and had participated in the murder. Why? Because de Padua revealed that he had been having an affair with Perez, who had allegedly become so obsessed with de Padua that she threatened to murder Thomaz, then 19 and pregnant, so they could be together. That story would certainly have been plausible enough ... if de Padua bothered to stick to it.

In a twist straight out of ... well, a soap opera, it turned out that the two actors never even had an affair. Of Body And Soul's entire crew affirmed that Perez was happily married and had frequently pushed away the clingy de Padua. Some even claimed de Padua had gone loco, confusing his soap opera stories with real life. During the trial, it came out that the couple committed the murder to "seal a pact of fidelity." We're no marriage experts, but a fidelity ritual involving murder does not sound like good therapy.

3

The Morris Family Loved Money More Than Each Other

Every family has a black sheep, the kind of screw-up you don't invite to your wedding because they might bring a hooker as a plus one. They'll sleep on your couch, eat your food, steal your Netflix password and fill your queue with reality TV -- and they'll never, ever be able to pay you back.

While they're alive, anyway.

Christopher Morris was a troubled man. A career cocaine addict, he had spent a big chunk of his adult life in prison on drug and assault charges. But he had Theron and Leila Morris, two loving parents who could never do enough for their baby boy. But love don't pay the bills -- or at least, not the mounds of cocaine needed to get through the day. So Christopher came up with a plan: Together with his roomie and prison pal Martin Wayne Rector, he would murder his ex-wife and her ten-year-old daughter to collect $35,000 in life insurance. He promised his parents half of the money, and they were just glad he'd finally found a promising career.

2

A Tempting Craigslist Offer Lured Men To Their Doom (No, Not Like That)

Stressed? Hate your job? Wish you had a job to hate? Check out this Craigslist ad from 2011:

We need someone to watch our farm down in southern Ohio. Live for free in a double-wide trailer, nothing in the way of duties except to take in the peacefulness of the countryside and remark on the changing of the seasons and make sure no one steals any farm equipment or perpetrates any mischief. The pay is $300 a week.

That ad was written by Richard "Jack" Beasley, and it read like an escapist dream come true. Hundreds jumped at the opportunity to live the simple life on his farm, but Beasley was picky: only men, and only if they weren't married. Once the prospects arrived, Beasley and his 16-year-old "nephew" Brogan Rafferty would meet up with the newly minted cowboys and drive them to the farm. But when the men arrived, they didn't see wide open fields, or even a double-wide trailer. They saw nothing at all, because Beasley shot them dead.

There was no work, no farm, and Beasley was no cowboy. In 2011, he figured there were so many unemployed blue-collar dudes around that surely no one would care if a few went missing. Whenever someone asked why he was selling what seemed like a complete midlife crisis starter package on a site meant to hawk water-damaged sofas, Beasley pretended he was one of the people folks saw on Storage Wars.

1

A Father Manipulated His Own Daughter Into Killing His Wife (And Herself)

In March of 1985, 23-year-old Linda Marie Bailey Brown was found dead in her bed, killed by two gunshot wounds to the chest. A few hours later, police discovered Linda's stepdaughter, 14-year-old Cinnamon Brown, lying in her own vomit inside a doghouse, clutching a suicide note that confessed to the murder. The case seemed open and shut. Cinnamon's father, David Arnold Brown, and her stepmom's sister, Patti Bailey told the cops that Cinnamon and Linda didn't get along. Cinnamon recovered from her suicide attempt, and a judge found her guilty and sentenced her to life in a reformatory.

Zanandi BotesThe rare teenage rebellious phase that includes a coup.