Ask anybody who's been across the Houston, Texas, courthouse for some time about Catherine Shelton, they usually'll know the identify. She was "a nice-lookin' younger lawyer," mentioned lawyer Lloyd Oliver, who knew her when she got here on the authorized scene. "She had lovely blonde hair. She was shapely. And she or he attracted males."
Males did appear to be drawn to Shelton, however not all of them have such good issues to say. "I believe if I would stayed in Houston, I would be useless proper now," mentioned Shelton's ex-boyfriend Ferris Bond in 2003. "I believe she would have killed me."
Accusations like Bond's have swirled round Shelton since her early days as a legal protection lawyer within the Nineteen Seventies. A headstrong younger lawyer, she was fast to make herself identified in what was then a person's world. In an interview with "48 Hours" in 2003, she informed us one male lawyer mentioned there have been two routes for girls within the courthouse within the '70s: to "preserve their head down" and "drift," or communicate up and be "eaten alive."
Shelton did not preserve her head down. "However surprisingly sufficient," she informed us, "I used to be not eaten alive. I suppose I used to be simply too huge of a mouthful."
A number of of the males in Shelton's life may agree that in getting concerned together with her, they bit off greater than they might chew. "It was just a little bit like taking part in with fireplace," mentioned Gary Taylor, a former Houston Put up reporter, referring to a relationship he says he had with Shelton in 1980. Shelton won't even admit that they have been courting. Ferris Bond mentioned that breaking apart with Shelton "was the worst factor I've ever been via. I would not want it on my worst enemy." He claims she stalked him and burned down his residence. Shelton denies these claims.
However there are different tales of males in Shelton's life, males that "48 Hours" cannot interview. George Tedesco, for instance, was one other ex-boyfriend. He was discovered bludgeoned to dying in his storage in 1979 on the day he was supposed to indicate up in court docket in a dispute with Shelton. Shelton says she had nothing to do with it. And one other man named with Shelton in a lawsuit was discovered with a bullet in his head in 1980 from a recreation of Russian roulette he was taking part in by himself. Shelton says she did not have something to do with that mysterious dying, both.
"I've by no means killed any human being," Shelton informed "48 Hours" this 12 months. "I've by no means paid anybody to kill any human being, promised anybody that I'd pay them to kill one other human being, provided anybody something of worth."
One girl disagrees. Marisa Hierro is a former worker of Shelton's, and when "48 Hours" talked to her in 2003, she mentioned she believed Shelton was chargeable for the dying of her husband, Michael Hierro. He was ambushed and killed with a shotgun in his driveway in 1999. Marisa was there that evening and suffered a gunshot wound herself. She mentioned she noticed two masked figures — a person with a gun, and a petite girl with blonde hair.
"And I knew it was her," Marisa Hierro mentioned. "I do know it was her. I've labored together with her. I have been in her house. I've had dinner together with her. I've had a private relationship… I do know it was her. Catherine Shelton."
The 2 girls had a contentious relationship. Marisa Hierro had not too long ago stop working for Shelton and had opened up her personal immigration consulting enterprise. Shelton wasn't joyful about it, Marisa says, and shortly the 2 girls have been accusing one another of scamming their purchasers.
However Shelton had an alibi for the evening of the taking pictures. Information present that she was on the telephone on the time of the homicide. She mentioned she was speaking to her mom, in addition to a psychologist who labored together with her purchasers.
"At one level I believed, effectively, possibly I did do it," Shelton mentioned. "Perhaps I blacked out and did it or one thing … and I talked to the psychologist, and I mentioned, 'Look, possibly I did do it, ? I preserve feeling like so many individuals cannot be mistaken,' and he mentioned, 'It is not possible. I used to be speaking to you, like, when it was occurring, on the telephone.'"
Nonetheless, one particular person did not have a stable alibi — Catherine Shelton's husband, Clint. His DNA was discovered on a masks in a close-by Porta Potty. He went on trial and was convicted and continues to be serving a life sentence for gunning down the Hierros.
Marisa Hierro would later sue Shelton for wrongful dying. The case was finally dropped however Shelton would later counter-sue saying that Marisa had falsely blamed her and her husband Clint for the crime and that each one of her claims have been unfaithful. Hierro and her lawyer did not present up for the trial and Catherine gained by default. The ruling? Marisa libeled Shelton by accusing her of homicide.
Shelton says her husband is harmless, and the true offender is Marisa Hierro herself. She says Marisa had been operating an immigration rip-off, taking cash from immigrants who needed inexperienced playing cards and doing little or nothing to assist them. Shelton claims Michael Hierro came upon concerning the rip-off and he was going to reveal his spouse.
"I do know Michael was inconvenient to her," Shelton mentioned. "She was immediately accountable. Even when she didn't herself pull the set off… she made it occur."
Marisa Hierro denied that she would ever damage her husband and pointed to Shelton's historical past as an indicator of her guilt. "In the event you take a look at Catherine now and also you see what I do know now of her previous and all of the those who she's damage," she mentioned, "how many individuals does she do that to, and he or she factors the finger again?"
And there are two extra males who died which have hyperlinks to her, bringing the full to 5. In 1999, a person named Chris Hansen turned up useless and bare, hanging within the closet space of a home that she owned however had not but moved into. He'd been doing a little contracting work on the home. In line with newspaper studies at time his dying was dominated an accident by autoerotic asphyxiation. And extra not too long ago, in 2017, an aged veteran named Sam Shelton (no relation) died in her house. She mentioned she was taking good care of him, and he died of pure causes.
Shelton has by no means been charged with homicide. So, are all of the deaths round her a coincidence, or simply unhealthy luck? "I would not say it is a coincidence," Shelton informed "48 Hours." She mentioned the deaths make extra sense when you think about her profession as a legal protection lawyer. "Contemplate the world that I moved in … I do know law enforcement officials who know many, many occasions extra individuals than I did who died, whom they knew. Does that imply unhealthy luck is following them round? Is that coincidence? No, it is their line of labor."
Shelton says if she might do all of it once more, she may select a unique profession. "I want to have been a librarian," she mentioned. "That was what I actually needed to do."
To listen to extra concerning the instances linked to Shelton and her aspect of the story, watch "Chasing Catherine Shelton (Half 2)," airing Saturday, Could 7 at 10/9c on CBS and Paramount+. Click on right here to observe half 1.