The Mistress of Hollywood: June Cassandra Mincher

Alex Marti (left), William Mentzer (center, behind lawyer)
and Karen Greenberger (right, facing camera)

Each of the defendants had two attorneys, and because of the Hollywood angle, the courtroom became something of a circus atmosphere.  The defendants were prepared to try to prove that Rider was not a credible witness and to offer alibis for their whereabouts on the night of the Radin murder, or to argue that their intentions or statements had been misunderstood.  The prosecution's argument was that Jacobs-Greenberger had hired Mentzer, Lowe, and Marti to kill Radin, based on the following facts and circumstances.

Roy Radin had been involved in New York's entertainment business, which was going under for him, and he wanted to be involved in the production of The Cotton Club.  He'd met cocaine dealer Karen DeLayne "Laney" Jacobs in January 1983, and she introduced him to an important producer that April.  She expected to be paid a finder's fee should a deal go through, and to be allowed some participation in the film's profits.  (Apparently she wanted to use her part to help a drug lord with whom she was involved launder money.)  Radin did not agree to the terms.  He wanted nothing more to do with Laney, finding her to be a difficult woman with a lot of problems.  (She was known to be paranoid and to fly into temper tantrums.)

This upset Laney, so she confronted Radin to try to persuade him to change his mind.  He didn't budge.  Reportedly, she was furious.  Shortly afterward, her house was robbed of $275,000 and a substantial amount of cocaine.  She knew who had done it — one of her associates who had installed her security system — and she was nearly insane from stress.  She accused Radin of having some part in it.  He immediately put distance between himself and her, because it was clear to him she was out of control.