Jeffrey Locker Hires Hitman to Kill Him, Family Gets $18M Life Insurance

Jeffrey Locker Hires Hitman to Kill Him, Family Gets $18M Life Insurance: "A motivational speaker paid a hitman to kill him so that his family could receive $18 million in life insurance payments.

Jeffrey Locker, a 52-year-old father of three, was murdered in July 2009 by a man named Kenneth Minor, who's now on trial for the crime. Minor's lawyer, Daniel Gotlin, told an almost unbelievable story of how Minor came to kill Locker. Locker had paid a career criminal in Harlem to shoot him: he was deep in debt and wanted his family to be able to claim his life insurance.

When the hitman backed out and ran away, Locker spent time walking up and down the streets, asking random strangers to shoot him in exchange for money. He approached Minor, whom he'd never met before that night. He offered him his ATM and credit cards, saying he'd paid another man to murder him, but the man had run off with his cash. He then instructed Minor to tie his hands with wire, take a knife from the glove compartment of Locker's car, and hold the knife while Locker thrust his body forward and stabbed himself with it. Locker was later found dead in his car.