Jill Coit Steely "Black Widow"

Born Jill Lonita Billiot on June 11, 1943 in Louisana. Has been given the title of “The Louisiana Black Widow” or just simply the "Black Widow"

The Billiots weren’t rich, but Jill Billiot had everything she wanted. The little brown-eyed girl who lived near the canals of The Big Easy

At age 15 and during her sophomore year of high school, Billiot moved in with her maternal grandparents in North Manchester, Indiana. Billiot returned to The Big Easy, shunning the midwestern life she lived in Indiana. She completed her high school diploma ard enrolled at Northwestern State University of Louisiana in Natchitoches

Jill Coit is an ex-model besides working at Heckman Bindery, forming and operatiing her own advertising company Tower Advertising Co., owning a farm in Indiana, owned a Noodle making factory, worked with State Farm Insurance and started Coit International, which owned a Taxi Cab service and a Bed & Breakfast in Culver Marshall county Indiana

Coit also persuaded Bruce Johansen, a wealthy retiree in his 90's to “adopt” her. Seriously. Johansen died the following year and naturally Coit inherited a significant amount of his estate. Natural causes were cited as Johansen’s cause of death and there appeared to be no foul play but the “adoption” certainly happened at an opportune time.

She was portrayed by Bonnie Bedelia in the film Legacy of Sin. Her case was also featured on Deadly Women and Facing Evil with Candice DeLong. New Detectives True Crime

Born: Jill Lonita Billiot
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Parricide
Number of victims: 1 +
Date of murder: October 22, 1993
Date of arrest: December 23, 1993
Date of birth: June 11, 1943
Victim profile: Gerald Boggs, 52 (her ex-husband)
Method of murder: Shooting (.22 caliber pistol) Location: Steamboat Springs, Colorado, USA
arrested: December 23, 1993
Sentenced : to life in prison on May 24, 1995 and fined 1 million dollars
Status: a true lifer of the Colorado Department of Corrections (all of her appeals have been denied) – her first eligible date for parole is March 16, 2004

We in Culver all knew her as "Jill Steely'; she was slender & beautiful, charming and smart; while residing in Culver .

She joined many of the Culver Organizations; she had several businesses - Culver bed & breakfast, and a taxi service. She even started the Emergency Medical Technican Course in 1985 the was taught by the Culver EMS personel - she either dropped out or failed to maintain a grade average that would allow her to continue the course. Yet little was really ever known about her while living in Culver.

By the time of her arrest for the murder of Gerald "Gerry" Boggs, her name "techincally" was as follows was: Jill Lonita Billiot Ihnen Moore Coit Brodie Dirosa Metzger Steely Boggs - the names apprearing on the arrest warrant were Jill Coit aka Jull Johansen-Coit, Jill Lonita Billot, Jill Steeley, Jill Steely, Jill-Coit-Steely, Jill Boggs, Jill Jahanseon, Jill Carroll, Jill Kisla, Jill Billioy, Jill Ihnen, Jill Brodie, Jill Metzger, Jill Moore and Jill DeRosa and although She had used used Backus a couple of time it did not appear on the list

Her marriages have been listed as: No. 1 - Larry Eugene Ihnen, an apprentice bricklayer
married 24 Jul 1961 n Wabash, Indiana
divorced 12 Jun 1962

No. 2 Steven Moore, a college student, in Mississippi
married 5 May 1964
diivorced 23 Mar 1967 in Louisiana.
has: son Steven Seth Moore was adopted by William Clark Coit Jr. and bears the name Johnathan Seth Coit

No. 3 William Clark Coit Jr, a Tenneco engineer,
Birth: 11 May 1929 Cleveland, Ohio
married : 27 (29) Jan 1966 Orange, Texas Jill Lonita Billiot (still married to Steven Moore)
Death: 29 Mar 1972 - Houston, Harris, Texas - murdered
son of William Clark Coit & Anna Dixie North
has sons : William Andrew Coit & William Clark Coit III

 
Name:	Jill Lonita Billiot
Gender:	Female
Age:	21
Birth Year:	abt 1945
Marriage Date:	27 Jan 1966
Marriage Place:	Orange, Texas, USA
Spouse:	William Clark Coit Jr
Spouse Gender:	Male
Spouse Age:	36

No. 4 Donald Charles Brodie , a US Marine Corps major
MARRIED 3 Nov 1973 Orange county, California - Jill L Billiot
divorced: 7 Jul 1975
has son: Thadeus John Brodie

California, Divorce Index, 1966-1984 
Name:	Jill L Billiot
Spouse Name:	Donald C Brodie
Location:	Orange
Date:	Sep 1974

Nos. 5 - Louis DiRosa a lawyer and later a judge
married 11 Jan 1976 Wilkinson County, Mississippi
divorced 4 Nov. 1978 Haiti - not legal by U.S.
divorced 2nd - 26 Jul 1985 New Orleans, Louisiana. - legal divorce

Bruce Johansen – Sugar Daddy
hinted as married - but adopted her

Nos. 6 : Eldon Duane Metzger, an Indiana auctioneer
Birth: July 14, 1940 North Manchester, Wabash County, Indiana
Death: 2 Dec 2003 - North Manchester, Wabash, Indiana, United States of America
Buried: Old German Baptist Brethren Cemetery, Wabash County, Indiana
Marriage: Jill C Johansen March 27, 1978 in Lima, Ohio ( married to Louis A Dirost).
divorce - unknown
Parents: Orville Metzger, Mae Ellen Niccum

No 7 & 8 husband Carl Victor Steely
married 6 Jan 1983 (married to Louis A. Dirost) less than a year of marriage, separated
mamrried 3 Jul 1988 Clark county Nevada as Jill Johansen Coit Book: 713 Page: C063873 Instrument number: 92804
divorced 29 Dec 1983 Haiti - not legal by U.S.
divorced: 23 Nov 1991 Plymouth Marshall county Indiana - legal

No. 9 Gerald "Gerry" Boggs Birth b 1941 Death 21 Nov 1993 Steamboat Springs, Colorado. - murdered married (1990) 4 Arp 1991 Steamboat Springs, Colorado. only 7 days Anullied - Jill was still married to Steely son of WIlliam Harold Boggs & Sylvia Lamprecht

No. 10, Roy Clyde Carroll,retired US Navy chief petty officer and businessman in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Birth 6 SEP 1924
Death Dec.27, 2010
son of WIlliam Edgar Carroll and Maude Pearl Conner
marrried 7 Feb 1992 divorced - not found

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No. 11 Michael Backus, and telephone company maintenance and repairman
married rumors of no evidence found
said to assumed "Backus" surname

FORMER INDIANA WOMAN CHARGED WITH KILLING COLORADO HUSBAND Article from: Post-Tribune (IN) Article date: December 17, 1993 A former Indiana woman being held on murder charges has left a trail of husbands, as many as three at one time. Two were killed, a third claims attempts were made on his life and a fourth died of natural causes after adopting Jill Coit, the Houston Chronicle reported Sunday. "She's a psychotic, vicious, ruthless black widow," said Stan Lewis, a Houston private investigator hired to research Coit's background. "She takes a sadistic, fiendish delight in preying on well-meaning men to facilitate her ultimate goal of furthering her financial welfare. "Jill Coit, who's been known by a litany...

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WOMAN, BOYFRIEND ACCUSED OF KILLING HUSBAND NO. 9.
Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) ,br. Dec 20, 1993; 700+ Words
ROBERT WELLER - Associated Press
Jill Coit is a marrying woman. Ten times she has taken the plunge. Coit may have to forsake her marrying...psychologist. CAPTION(S): PHOTO AP JILL COIT is escorted by sheriff's investigator...

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Woman Wed 10 Times Is Accused of Killing No. 9,
Chicago Sun-Times; Dec 20, 1993; Robert Weller ; 626 Words
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. Jill Coit is a marrying woman. Ten times she has taken the plunge. But Coit may have to forsake her marrying ways...ex-husband, Carl Steely, said of Coit. "Why would all these people marry...

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WOMAN AND BOYFRIEND ARRESTED IN MURDER OF HER 9TH HUSBAND
Buffalo News; Dec 20, 1993; ROBERT WELLER - Associated Press ; 555 Words
Jill Coit is a marrying woman. Ten times she has taken the plunge. Ms. Coit may have to forsake her marrying ways for...ex-husband, Carl Steely, said of Ms. Coit. "Why would all these people marry her if...

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From the Los Angles times -

After 10 Marriages, Woman Is Jailed on Murder Charges

Violence: Jill Coit and a boyfriend are being held in death of husband No. 9. No. 3 also met an untimely end.

December 26, 1993|ROBERT WELLER | ASSOCIATED PRESS

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Jill Coit is a marrying woman. Ten times she has taken the plunge.

But now she and a boyfriend are in jail, charged with murdering husband No. 9, who was shot in October.

"If you were to meet her and talk to her, you'd think she's just the greatest person you ever met," one ex-husband, Carl Steely, said of Coit. "Why would all these people marry her if she weren't that way?"

Coit, 50, who is still married to husband No. 10, is charged in the slaying of Gerry Boggs, 52. She and telephone repairman Michael Backus, 48, are being held on $5-million bond on first-degree murder charges.

Neither defendant looked at the other during a recent court appearance, when they were ordered to appear Jan. 31 for a preliminary hearing.

Coit, a stocky woman with heavy eyebrows and curly hair and dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, hardly appeared the seductress and former model who left a trail of husbands in five states and managed to persuade a wealthy, elderly Californian to adopt her just before he died.

The arrest affidavit naming Coit lists 16 names she has used.

Her husbands have included the lawyer who helped her avoid questioning in the shooting death of her third husband, Clark Coit, whose name she continues to use. Coit, like Boggs, was shot by someone who entered his home through an unlocked back door, in 1972.

Coit checked herself into a psychiatric hospital after Coit's killing and police were never able to question her.

She married and divorced lawyer Louis DiRosa twice, making him husbands Nos. 5 and 6. In between Coit and DiRosa, she married Marine Maj. Donald Brodie in California.

While still DiRosa's wife, Coit married husbands Nos. 7 and 8: Eldon Metzger, an Indiana auctioneer, and Steely, a teacher in Indiana, according to police.

"I'm thankful to be alive," Steely said.

Private investigator Stan Lewis, retained by Boggs to look into Coit's past, said she "is cut from the same cloth as 'The Black Widow.' "The reference is to a 1987 thriller about a young woman whose wealthy husbands die.

Police say Coit and Backus shot and killed Boggs several days before a trial of a lawsuit charging bigamy and extortion. Boggs had his 1990 marriage to Coit annulled after Lewis found she was still married to Steely when she married Boggs. She then married husband No. 10, Roy Carroll, 68, in Houston.

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Police to...
Chicago Sun-Times; Dec 26, 1993; Lane Harvey Brown ; 700+ Words
...The quote: Carl Steely, eighth ex-husband of Coloradan Jill Coit, who has been charged with killing husband No. 9 (with the aid of a boyfriend) while still married to husband No... .

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Article: `BLACK WIDOW' CONVICTED OF KILLING NINTH HUSBAND.
Article from: Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) Article date: March 18, 1995
Byline: Associated Press

Hot Sulpur Springs, Colo. A and carrying out the torture and killing of her ninth husband.

Jill Coit and her boyfriend Michael Backus were convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the shooting death of Gerald Boggs, a hardware store owner.

Boggs was found dead at his Steamboat Springs home in October 1993. Prosecutors say Boggs, 52, was beaten, shocked with a stun gun and shot with a .22-caliber pistol.

Coit, 51, was married 11 times to nine men. Her marriage to Boggs was … ...and killing of her ninth husband. Jill Coit and her boyfriend Michael Backus...Gerald Boggs died at the hands of Jill Coit and Michael Backus,'' District...suspect to the scene of the crime. Coit and Backus, 49, have maintained...

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Legacy of Sin' Is Guilty Of Bad Performances Chicago Sun-Times; Oct 3, 1995; Kevin M. Williams ; 357 Words "Legacy of Sin: The William Coit Story," 7 to 9 tonight, Channel 32. A son learns his mother...mama's boy. Bonnie Bedelia overacts everybody off the screen as Jill Coit's sleazy mother. As the title character, Neil Patrick Harris...

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Article: `BLACK WIDOW' MURDER CONVICTION APPEAL FAILS.
Article from:Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) Article date: November 29, 1997
Byline: John Sanko Rocky Mountain News Capitol Bureau
An oft-married woman dubbed ``the black widow'' by private investigators failed to win an appeal Friday of her conviction for murdering the eighth of her nine husbands.

The Colorado Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of Jill Coit for first-degree murder and conspiracy in the torture-slaying of Steamboat Springs hardware store owner Gerald Boggs on Oct. 21, 1993.

Coit and Michael Backus, her boyfriend from Greeley, shot Boggs and tortured him with a stun gun on the eve of a civil trial over ownership of a bed-and-breakfast operation in Steamboat Springs.

Coit, who was married 11 times

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APPEAL REJECTED IN '93 SLAYING.(Local) Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO); Jan 9, 1998; 298 Words ...appeal of his murder conviction Thursday. The Colorado Court of Appeals let stand the first-degree murder and conspiracy conviction of Michael O. Backus. He was accused of helping Jill Coit in the torture-slaying of Gerald Boggs in 1993.

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Article: MURDERER CAUGHT IN WEB SCAM `BLACK WIDOW' WAS TRYING TO LURE FOREIGN NATIONALS INTO MARRIAGE. (Local)
Article from: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
Article date: May 22, 1998
Byline: Dick Foster Rocky Mountain News Southern Bureau

Jill Coit, the so-called Black Widow convicted of the 1993 murder of her husband, has been caught trying to lure foreign nationals into marriage via the Internet.

Coit, who has been married 11 times to nine men, is serving a life sentence without parole in the Colorado Women's Facility in Canon City. But even from her cell, Coit solicited marriage until the Immigration and Naturalization Service put a halt to it recently.

Her Internet pitch: "Want U.S. citizenship? Marry an inmate."

Coit was convicted of murdering Steamboat Springs businessman Gerald Boggs, who was married to Coit in …

JUDGE WANTS ....
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO); Sep 17, 1999; Lindsay, Sue ; 700+ Words ...
The first-degree murder trial of Jill Coit, the ``Black Widow,'' and co...Steamboat Springs to Hot Sulphur Springs. Coit and Bakus were found guilty in the...hardware store owner Gerald Boggs, one of Coit's nine ex-husbands. Nov. 15...

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Article: STATE PREVAILS IN APPEAL OF NOTORIOUS STEAMBOAT SPRINGS MURDER
Article from: US Fed News Service, Including US State News
Article date: September 21, 2006
The Colorado Department of Law (Attorney General) issued the following news release:

The Attorney General's Office announced today that the murder conviction of Michael Backus, who had been found guilty of a gruesome murder thirteen years ago in Steamboat Springs, has been upheld.

"Today, the Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's denial of Michael Backus' post-conviction appeal on his convictions for first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder," said Attorney General Suthers. "This decision keeps a dangerous criminal behind bars."

Backus and his girlfriend, Jill Coit, were charged with the 1993 murder of Steamboat Springs hardware owner Gerald Boggs, who was Coit's ex-husband. Boggs and Coit had been involved in a bitter post-divorce court...

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She was written about in "Poison Vows" by Clifford L. Lindecker; Sections of the book pertaining to Culver and Culver people Google Book overview : Jill Coit was a voluptuous, dark-skinned beauty--as sultry and unfathomable as the Louisiana bayou where she was born and raised. But beneath the glamour of the one-time fashion model was a woman of insatiable desire who used her cover-girl looks to prey on eligible, well-meaning men. Married ten times, she vowed her undying love. But her life was a series of betrayals involving flagrant adultery, and even bigamy. She battled to get her hands on her ex-husbands' back accounts, family inheritances and valuables. Across at least five states, she used more than a dozen names to spin a tangled web of marriages and money. But was she on a heartless quest for more and more wealth--one that led to the cold-blooded murder of two of her husbands and attempts on the life of another? And did she go so far as to try to involve her own son in a plot to murder husband number nine? St. Martin's Paperbacks, September 1995 ISBN: 978-0-312-95513-7, ISBN10: 0-312-95513-8, 4 3/16 x 6 3/4 inches, 320 pages, 8 pp photos, <

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Also a movie for TV was made of her story via her son: Legacy of Sin: The William Coit Story (TV 1995) Director: Steven Schachter Writers: Stephen Sing ular (book), Ronald Parker Release Date: 3 October 1995 (USA) Neil Patrick Harris ... William Coit Bonnie Bedelia ... Jill Coit Michael MacRae ... Carl Steely Storyline: Based on actual events in the life of William Coit Jr. this is the story of one man's choice between the love of his mother and his search for truth. William Coit wants to find out the truth about the killing of his father when he was younger, he finds out his mother did it. This movie tells the story of William Coit Jr, and about the killing of his father.

Charmed To Death by Stephen Singular Published October 20th 1995 by Pinnacle 50 year old Gerry Boggs was one of the wealthiest and most eligible bachelors in Steamship Springs, Colorado. Until Jill Colt came to town. Captivated by her sexy southern drawl, classy good looks and sultry charm, Boggs fell- and fell hard. They married, following a whirlwind courthship. Then he discovered his bride's dark secret...Jill Colt married ten men, divorced six, and always stayed one step ahead of the law in a poisonous spree of bigamy, embezzlement, and murder that lasted nearly 35 years. The shocking true story of a real-life Black Widow, this is also a terrifying portrait of the American Dream gone horribly wrong..a dream poisoned by the lust and greed of a woman who believed she could get away with it all- even murder.