Lawrence Rudolph Pittsburgh dentist and big game hunter found guilty of murdering his wife, Bianca Rudolph after cashing in on $5m insurance payout and other evidence.
A Pittsburgh area multimillionaire dentist and big game hunter was found guilty of murder and mail fraud Monday for the shooting death of his wife during a 2016 African safari trip nearly six years earlier.
A jury found Lawrence ‘Larry’ Rudolph, 67, guilty of gunning down his wife of 34 years, Bianca Rudolph, following a three-week trial in a Denver federal courthouse.
The big game hunter was also convicted of mail fraud for cashing in $4.8 million in life insurance payments following his wife’s October 2016 death — which he claimed was accidental and self-inflicted, CBS Pittsburgh reported.
Jurors sided with prosecutors who said Rudolph killed his wife in cold blood as part of a premeditated plan to take the life insurance payouts and start a new life with his mistress of 20 years.
Prosecutors said Rudolph shot his wife while on a hunting trip in Zambia on Oct. 11, 2016, and was overheard years later shouting ‘I killed my f–king wife for you!’ during an argument with the other woman, Lori Milliron, while out to dinner.
Big game hunter calls prosecutors claims a false narrative
The wealthy dentist maintained his innocence during the trial and claimed Bianca Rudolph had accidentally shot herself in the chest while packing a shotgun when he was in the bathroom. He said his wife had been packing her bags in a hurry as she was in a rush to return home from the trip.
However, prosecutors said her gun wound couldn’t have been self-inflicted. They presented evidence that showed the shot to her heart had been fired from two to three-and-a-half feet away.
Prosecutors alleged that Rudolph decided to kill his wife to regain control over his life after Bianca Rudolph asked for more say in the couple’s finances and demanded that Milliron be fired. Rudolph’s attorneys called that a false narrative.
Rudolph’s lawyers said he had no motive to kill his wife for Milliron because the couple had been in an open relationship since 2000, which allowed them to have sexual relationships with others.
They also said he had no financial need for the life insurance payouts, which went into a trust for the couple’s children, when he was worth more than $15 million at the time. Investigators for the insurance companies concluded that the shooting was accidental and forked over nearly $5 million to the family.
Prosecutors claimed Milliron, who is the manager of Rudolph’s Pittsburgh-area dental franchise, became privy to the murder after the fact. They accused her of lying to a federal jury about the case and her relationship with Rudolph.
She was also found guilty by the same jury of being an accessory after the fact to murder, obstruction of a grand jury and two counts of perjury before a grand jury. She was found not guilty on two other counts of perjury.
Rudolph faces a maximum term of life in prison or the death penalty.
