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In March 2006, Sullivan was convicted of murder for arranging the 1987 shooting of his wife and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, in a Georgia prison. The case was profiled on Unsolved Mysteries in 2001, the year before James Sullivan was arrested.
Nov 8, 2023 · James was indicted on federal charges of “violating interstate commerce laws by arranging his wife’s killing over the phone” and was extradited to Atlanta. However, a judge dismissed the case in June 1992 due to lack of evidence.
May 26, 2018 · James Vincent Sullivan, 77, was convicted of murder in the case, and is serving life without the possibility of parole at Macon State Prison. The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office...
- Overview
- Case
Real Name: James Vincent Sullivan
Aliases: None known
Wanted For: Murder
Missing Since: May 1998
Details: Millionaire James Sullivan met Atlanta socialite Lita McClinton in 1975 while she was working in an Atlanta mall. A few years later they were married after he divorced his first wife. He lost considerable money and property from the divorce. Her family feared that he married her only because of the high power that they had. They later moved to Palm Beach, Florida. During the early 1980s, they had several serious arguments. Her parents, Emory and Joann, believed that he was trying to control every aspect of her life. In 1985, she filed for divorce and left him, moving to a townhouse in Buckhead.
Lita and James were in the middle of nasty divorce proceedings when a deliveryman arrived at Lita's door on the morning of January 16, 1987. He, carrying a dozen roses, asked if she was Lita when she answered the door. When she responded "yes", he shot her once in the head. She was killed instantly. Several witnesses saw him fleeing the scene but could not identify him. Although James was at their home in Palm Beach, authorities believed that it may have been a contract hit.
Forty minutes after Lita's murder, James received a collect phone call from outside of Atlanta. The distance between Lita's home and the phone booth was exactly forty minutes. Telephone records showed that three men checked into a Georgia motel using false identification and made calls to James' home. A flower vendor remembered a nervous man buying the flowers that were found at Lita's home. Authorities learned from associates that James did not want to lose his fortune with another divorce. He also said that he wouldn't be surprised if Lita suffered a "tragic accident". Also, she was killed on the same day that she was scheduled to testify in court for the divorce case.
Although the gunman was never identified and the murder weapon was never found, a few months after Lita's murder, James was arrested and charged with it. However, this case was dismissed due to lack of evidence. Eight months later, he married Suki Rogers. However, three years later, they divorced. In 1991, she told police that he had admitted to her that he had hired someone to kill Lita.
In 1992, James was arrested and charged in federal court with arranging Lita's murder. However, this case was dismissed again. Her family was not going to give up; Emory, a former US Department of Transportation, and Joann, a Georgia state representative, were among Atlanta's most prominent African American families, and were able to keep the case alive. They also filed a $4 million civil suit against James and won.
In February 1998, a North Carolina man named Phillip Harwood was arrested on unrelated charges. He had previously worked for James, moving furniture for him. His girlfriend told police that he had implicated himself in Lita's murder. She also said that shortly after, they had met with James and he paid Phillip for committing it. When questioned, Phillip confessed to it and claimed that James hired him. He also admitted that he was the man that had picked up the flowers and had made the phone call to James' home that morning.
Apr 19, 2024 · Lita's husband, James Sullivan, always a prime suspect, slipped by on his solid alibi and unwavering conviction that he was in Florida at the time of the murder and had nothing to do with it.
Jun 7, 2015 · While James Sullivan is serving a life sentence for hiring a hit man who killed their 35-year-old daughter nearly three decades ago, an elderly Atlanta couple hasn’t given up hope of forcing...
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Feb 27, 2022 · Investigators refocused their efforts on James Sullivan. They scrutinized his phone records and noticed one call, made an hour after Lita’s murder from Atlanta to Palm Beach, which raised suspicions.
