Marriage, Murder, Malice & The Mob

Diane Georgia Turner was born on 26 June 1946 in Cook County, Illinois, to George and Anne Marie Turner. She grew up in a lower middle-class neighbourhood in Franklin Park, was valedictorian of her eighth-grade class at Lincoln Grade School and was remembered as extremely competitive and very bright. She went to Elmhurst College hoping to become a writer, but in 1966 she married Ronald Mueller and became a suburban housewife instead. details of the account remain covered until revealed Masters, born on 9 March 1935, was a married criminal defence and divorce lawyer with two sons. He and Diane began an affair almost at once, and her divorce from Mueller was final in 1972.

In 1974 Diane became pregnant, hoping a child would persuade Masters to leave his wife, but he forced her to have an abortion. She told him she would end the relationship unless he bought her a house and gave her a child, and in July 1977 their daughter Andra was born. In 1979, after Masters still refused to leave Benita and after beatings, Diane took Andra to live with her brother Randall 'Randy' Turner and his wife Kathy. Masters followed, promised to divorce Benita within a year and took Diane to the La Costa spa in Carlsbad, California. His divorce became final on 24 March 1980 and they married the next day at a Justice of the Peace.

By 1981 Diane was a trustee of Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills and vice chairman of its governing board. She had helped found the South Suburban Crisis Center for battered women in 1978 as a telephone hotline run from her kitchen, volunteered for Recording for the Blind and worked in state treasurer Jerome Casantino's campaign. She drove a yellow and white 1978 Cadillac Coupe de Ville with the plate DGM 19, wore furs and jewellery, and concealed the violence in her marriage; friends later described Masters shoving her down stairs and leaving bruises on her arms and neck.

Masters was corrupt on a grand scale. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now He was involved in payoffs to judges, an interest in a Chicago brothel and strip-club credit card laundering. details of the account remain covered until revealed He was sworn in at a tavern and was chief by 1973.

In autumn 1981 Diane met Jim Coskaleniac, an economics professor at the college, and by the December faculty Christmas party they were lovers. Masters learned almost immediately and asked police friends to watch her. On a family holiday in Sarasota, Florida, Diane gave him a last chance; he cut the trip short. In early January 1982 she decided to divorce, hired a lawyer and prepared to seek custody of Andra, telling friends she feared he would have her killed rather than pay alimony.

Masters hired a former policeman turned private investigator, Ted Nikaza, to bug the house. On 25 February 1982 Nikaza played him recordings from the kitchen telephone, including Diane and Coskaleniac reminiscing about a wine bottle used in sex. Masters destroyed the tapes and, according to the men present, said he would kill her, make it look like a home invasion and kill the dogs and cats too. On 18 March Diane had her hair done and attended a board meeting. The usual after-meeting drinks were moved to another restaurant and Coskaleniac stayed away on her instructions. She left at about 1 a.m. on 19 March and drove home, followed to within a hundred yards of the house by a nosy acquaintance, Genevieve Capstaff. Next morning the housekeeper found Masters at the kitchen table with Andra. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

Randy Turner rejected the story, hired the Chicago agency Special Operations and went to the press, making the case a major story. details of the account remain covered until revealed On 24 August a tipster calling himself Jack Springer said he had heard Diane calling for help from a padlocked cabin on the Des Plaines River in Lake County. Police were sceptical, especially after two earlier $25,000 ransom demands that Masters said he took in cash to the Chicago and Northwestern station in Waukeegan, where nobody appeared. In autumn 1982 Masters claimed $100,000 on a college life insurance policy, had Diane declared legally dead and received two $50,000 cheques.

On 11 December 1982 an officer saw tyre tracks running into the Illinois Sanitary and Ship Canal in Willow Springs. Divers pulled out 25 cars; the 25th was Diane's Cadillac, keys in the ignition, her decomposed body in the trunk. She had been struck on the head and shot twice with a .22, and casings were recovered, one caught in her sleeve. Her wristwatch and the dashboard clock had stopped at 1.50. She was partly clothed, without shoes, pantyhose or underwear, and there was no sign of sexual assault. Dr Robert G. Stein, the medical examiner, blocked a reported request by Masters to cremate the body and held it as evidence. Masters attended a memorial service with Andra.

A task force began on 4 January 1983, but the case went cold until 1986, when Lieutenant Jack Reed took it over with investigators Paul Sabin and Robert Colby. Reed got the wives and girlfriends of corrupt officers to talk. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The reconstruction was that a kill team waited outside the usual restaurant on 18 March but Diane never arrived. She reached home and surprised Masters. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

Operation Safebet, the FBI vice and credit card inquiry, ran alongside. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed In early 1988 Masters married his housekeeper, Janet Bower. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed Assistant US Attorney Thomas A. Scorza argued that Masters killed to keep control. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Andra became a Chicago-area lawyer, as did Masters' two sons.