Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
George Kogan grew up in Puerto Rico before moving to New York City, where he became a successful antiques and art dealer. In 1990, at age 49, George was happy. He was planning a new life with his former publicist and current girlfriend, Mary-Louise Hawkins, after years in an unhappy marriage. But George’s newfound happiness was short-lived. One morning, while he was walking to his girlfriend’s apartment, he was approached on the street and shot to death.
Join us at the quiet end for Murdered for Money. Ever since George and Mary-Louise became involved, George’s estranged wife, Barbara, was consumed with bitterness. As she and George worked out conditions of their divorce, Barbara became angry and greedy, demanding more alimony than George could afford. Since Barbara stood to collect $4.3 million in life insurance upon George’s death, she was the first person suspected in George’s murder. But it would take investigators nearly twenty years to uncover a link between Barbara’s and the man who killed George, finally leading to an arrest.
Sources
Lawyer Got 25 Years for Brokering Hit on Client’s Husband But ‘Black Widow’ Gets Only 12 Years Today, ABAJournal, Martha Neil, 6/4/2010
The Millionaire’s Wife by Cathy Scott
New York’s Black Widow to be released on parole, Oxygen.com, Jill Sederstrom, 10/19/2020
Victim cries foul as NYC’s infamous ‘Black Widow’ makes parole: ‘She’s an animal’, New York Post, Laura Italiano, 10/19/2020
George Kogan grew up in Puerto Rico before moving to New York City, where he became a successful antiques and art dealer. In 1990, at age 49, George was happy. He was planning a new life with his former publicist and current girlfriend, Mary-Louise Hawkins, after years in an unhappy marriage. But George’s newfound happiness was short-lived. One morning, while he was walking to his girlfriend’s apartment, he was approached on the street and shot to death.
Join us at the quiet end for Murdered for Money. Ever since George and Mary-Louise became involved, George’s estranged wife, Barbara, was consumed with bitterness. As she and George worked out conditions of their divorce, Barbara became angry and greedy, demanding more alimony than George could afford. Since Barbara stood to collect $4.3 million in life insurance upon George’s death, she was the first person suspected in George’s murder. But it would take investigators nearly twenty years to uncover a link between Barbara’s and the man who killed George, finally leading to an arrest.
Sources
Lawyer Got 25 Years for Brokering Hit on Client’s Husband But ‘Black Widow’ Gets Only 12 Years Today, ABAJournal, Martha Neil, 6/4/2010
The Millionaire’s Wife by Cathy Scott
New York’s Black Widow to be released on parole, Oxygen.com, Jill Sederstrom, 10/19/2020
Victim cries foul as NYC’s infamous ‘Black Widow’ makes parole: ‘She’s an animal’, New York Post, Laura Italiano, 10/19/2020
