William Gustafik cashed at the Main Event of the World Series of Poker in 2006. He had also placed 10th in a World Poker Tour event, making his reported lifetime poker earnings more than $165,000. But while his career may have just been getting started, it was over before it ever really started. During the summer of 2007, Vegas police responded to a call and found Gustafik stabbed to death in his Las Vegas condo, lying in a pool of his own blood.
Ironically, days later Gustafik’s wife, Jill Rockcastle, was found by police, overdosed, and she was arrested. It was later reported that she had in fact tried to kill herself after writing a 10-page letter that detailed her entire relationship with Gustafik and included a confession of her husband’s murder. She was eventually charged with murder, only to claim she committed the act of violence in self defense. Her defense claimed that Gustafik, who repeatedly abused her, had grabbed and pulled her by the hair through their home when she clutched a kitchen knife and stabbed him 15 times in the chest.
Despite her lengthy letter that reveals Gustafik as nothing short of a monster, her story did not hold up in court. She was sentenced the other day to 10 years to life in prison for the murder of her husband.
You can read her letter here:
Ironically, this story is eerily reminiscent of that of Ted Binion and girlfriend Sandy Murphy. Binion was found dead in his Vegas home in 1998. What looked at first like overdose of heroine/Xanax, was later declared a murder and Murphy and her lover, Rick Tabish, were later charged with the murder of Binion in 1999, but both were acquitted in 2003.
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