In the Arms of Evil: A True Story of Obsession, Greed, and Murder

by Carlton Smith

Nancy Jean Siegel of Maryland became addicted to gambling during her first marriage. Sneaking off to Atlantic City—and sinking deeper and deeper into debt—she began stealing identities, conning family members, and leaving two ex-husbands buried in bills. Then she sold cemetery plots door-to-door and met Jack Watkins, a man thirty years her senior. He not only bought a grave site from the attractive younger woman, he leased a car for her, sold his house and gave her the proceeds. But Nancy wanted more…Watkins' body was found in a steamer trunk near the Appalachian Trail. Half-naked and strangled, he remained unidentified for more than six years. Meanwhile, Nancy cashed his Social Security checks and opened new lines of credit under his name. By the time the police tracked her down, she had committed bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and more. New York Times bestselling author Carlton Smith takes you inside the greed, the gambling, and one gruesome murder—to question the very nature of evil…

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

316 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 30, 2010

Reviews

[Valerity (Val) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nancy Jean Siegler was quite the swindler, and her victims were everyone around her, family, husbands, and even an old man she started out just selling a grave site to, and ended up really taking for a ride. She spent her life doing identity frauds to gamble, and became very thorough with it, until she crossed the line.

[J.H. Moncrieff · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the Arms of Evil starts off strong, detailing some of the childhood and formative years of Nancy Jean Siegel, a "cute," Kewpie doll-like woman, according to the author, who becomes a notorious con artist, compulsive gambler, and murderer.

In some ways, it could serve as an effective cautionary tale, because Siegel's ultimate victim was not a rich man but an elderly fellow of modest means, who probably never thought he was at risk for this sort of thing. It also shows how devastating those free credit offers are if they end up in the wrong hands--all the more reason for banks and other companies to stop mailing them out to people who don't want them and never requested them.

Siegel's crimes, which were largely fraud of various types, are complicated, and the book loses steam as the author dissects them in exhausting detail, including testimony from the federal government trial against Siegel, much of which was repetition of facts we already knew. The last half of the book is incredibly dry and tedious as we go over Siegel's crimes yet again, in more detail than we really need.

[Vicki Thornberry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The research on this book is impeccable, yet this is what makes the book bogged down with too many details that are not interesting. Page after page about the legal antics and the court trial and whether or not number 21, 22, 32, or whatever is going to be allowed keeps the book from being about human interest or psychological issues. Smith does touch on Nancy's background and psychological aspect but not nearly enough. I have never read an Anne Rule book that was boring; she always managed to keep legal details to a minimum while maximizing human nature. I have read other Smith books that were more interesting. He had to have compiled massive hours upon hours of legal research, and I rated the book a three because of the endless work, but I was very board with all the legality, which was like trying to get through a legal document.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting case of a woman who fleeces the men who fall in love with her. It's a good book, though it gets a little bogged down in the legal wrangling, specifically about how much of the grifter's past crimes can be admitted into evidence at her trial.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was nice, and very nice ending. Even included a bit of humor in the beginning and ending chapters. So many victims; professional grifter. This is how the gambling cities can afford to build and tear down so many huge buildings: dumb gambling addicts like this woman. And we, Joe Public, have to "eat it."

[DAISY READS HORROR · Rating 3 out of 5]

The authors writing was intriguing and at times humorous in his opinions. What happened to Jack was very sad. Even sadder was how long it took for his remains to be identified.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

First part was really good and interesting. The second part was about all the wrangling that lawyers do. Not as interesting.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this if you need proof of the evil which exists

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A true who done it.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

A true story of a lady, Nancy Seigel's evilness. Blaming of gambling addiction she commits crimes against her family, banks, Social Security and many others including Jack Watkins, a simple older man who is lonely and vulnerable. She was conniving and just plain evil. Carlton Smith does an amazing job explaining the legal system which was too in depth for me and I find some of it was repetitious.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true story of a lady, Nancy Seigel's evilness. Blaming of gambling addiction she commits crimes against her family, banks, Social Security and many others including Jack Watkins, a simple older man who is lonely and vulnerable. She was conniving and just plain evil. Carlton Smith does an amazing job explaining the legal system which was too in depth for me and I find some of it was repetitious.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had too much lawyer talk and was very dry. It was a struggle to finish it. I did a lot of skimming on this one.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much legal"ese"......................

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best true-crime I've read, repetitive, unsuspenseful.

[Lynda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was hard to read. I felt it rehashed things over and over. Very technical as far as the court stuff. I just wanted the story part. Kind of a boring book.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't as good as the other books by this author. Too much lawyer language.

[Crystal Pippin · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book

[Jeannie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this book due to over half of it was set in the courtroom and that got boring real quick.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting how a person can commit to such horibble acts due to 'desperation', despite the goody look she potrayed to society.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting true crime story.