Book Version
Kindle Version
Kindle Version
Deadly Roses - The Twenty Year Curse
Special 10% Discount When Ordered From CreateSpace. Use Discount Code: NTYVP8MW.
A true crime book - Available at www.createspace.com/900002733 Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.
A true crime book - Available at www.createspace.com/900002733 Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.
|
Deadly Roses News Articles
Deadly Roses - Clarion Book Review Publishing Perspectives: Self Publishing 2010: Where Old School Meets The New Ex-suspect writes about murder case with Braintree tie Whatever happened to ... Marvin Marable, suspect in Lita Sullivan murder |
|
|
FOREWORD
This book is about a former New York State Trooper named Marvin D. Marable who moved to Atlanta and married Poppy Finley. Ms. Finley’s best friend from Spelman College, Lita McClinton Sullivan was married to James Vincent Sullivan.
 |
Everything seemed to be going right for the two couples. Marvin and Poppy were both successful in their businesses, and they had recently purchased a luxury home in a million-dollar Sandy Springs neighborhood in metropolitan Atlanta. Jim and Lita had recently purchased an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach and a luxury townhouse in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. Jim Sullivan had moved to Macon, Georgia, from Boston in 1973 to assist his uncle with his liquor distributorship. Jim grew up on the south side of Boston and graduated from College of the Holy Cross. He met Lita during the time of his divorce from his first wife, who eventually returned to the Boston area with their four children. He developed a very strong attraction to Lita. He showered her with gifts, and to the surprise of many, he married her. It has been said that Lita’s parents (especially her father) were not totally comfortable with Lita marrying Jim. Jim’s uncle died, and he inherited the liquor distributorship. Jim amassed a fortune through his shrewd operation of the liquor business and eventually became a millionaire. He purchased an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach, and he owned a Rolls Royce Corniche and other luxury automobiles. Lita was a socialite in Atlanta and Macon, but Palm Beach was a different story. Lita did not feel as if she was accepted in Palm Beach because she was African-American. As predicted by some, the marriage eventually began to fail. With allegations of infidelity and cruel treatment, Lita hitched a U-Haul to the back of her Mercedes SL and drove to Atlanta from Palm Beach. The next day she filed for a divorce against Jim. Poppy and Lita began spending a great deal of time with each other after she moved back to Atlanta. Marvin and Poppy’s marriage was also beginning to fail, and he told her that she (Poppy) would end up getting a divorce also, if she continued to spend so much time with Lita. |
Marvin became suspicious of Poppy when he found a copy of a letter that she had written to her attorney. The letter outlined what she wanted in a divorce settlement against Marvin. To obtain additional information, Marvin placed a wiretap on his home telephone. He intercepted telephone calls from his wife Poppy, as well as Lita, because she would often use the telephone when she was at their house. Marvin contacted one of Jim’s attorneys, John Taylor, for possible representation in his impending divorce, and Marvin told him about the wiretap recording. John Taylor told him that Jim would be interested in the tapes.
Marvin was ready to remove the recording device from his telephone, but Jim begged him to leave it on his telephone. Jim told Marvin that he would make it worthwhile. Jim was very interested in the recordings and agreed to pay Marvin $30,000 if he did not have to pay any more than the $250,000 that was listed in Lita’s post-nuptial agreement. Against his better judgment, Marvin left the device on his telephone.
Deadly Roses - Video 1
As luck would have it, Poppy and Lita found the wiretap device and turned it over to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. Poppy then filed for a divorce against Marvin.Even though Lita had a post-nuptial agreement, she was asking for a great deal more. The divorce had dragged on for over a year, and the legal fees had exceeded $100,000 with no settlement in sight.
Marvin shipped the forty wiretap tapes to Jim by courier, and Jim promised not to copy the tapes, but to take notes only. Later, Marvin flew to the Palm Beach mansion to meet with Jim to discuss their divorces.
When the tapes were returned to Marvin via Jim’s attorney’s office, some of the tapes were missing. Marvin confronted Jim and his attorney Jeffrey Bogart, but they both disavowed any knowledge of the missing tapes. Marvin later heard that Jim’s attorney was planning to use the missing tapes in Jim’s divorce case. This infuriated Marvin, and he broke off all ties and communications with James Sullivan.
One morning, just before a property settlement hearing, Lita was brutally murdered by a gunman posing as a florist deliveryman. The pink roses littered the foyer of the elaborate townhouse in Atlanta’s fashionable Buckhead community, and Lita lay mortally wounded on the floor beside them. She died en-route to the hospital or shortly after she arrived.
Three days before Lita’s murder, Jim made an early morning telephone call to Marvin, asking questions about Lita. The case received immediate wide-spread media coverage. After the murder, there was extensive television, newspaper, magazine, and radio coverage. There was much speculation as to who committed the murder, why the murder was committed, and how it was committed. James Sullivan and Marvin Marable were considered prime suspects in Lita’s murder. The book will capture the attention of the reader and it will be difficult to put the book down until it is finished. Many details of the case are included in the book. Deadly Roses is available for purchase at www.createspace.com/900002733 Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.com.
