Death of a Beauty King
Oh Dear!
Frustrated by the pace of the investigation into Dean's murder, his wife hired Texan private investigator William "Bill" Dear to get to the bottom of the case. Dear found out almost immediately that Dean had far more enemies than most. Shockingly, he learned that some of them were members of his very family.
Dean had gained full control of B&B, having sole voting power on the company's operations, although other family members, such as his brother Fred, his sister Sophie and her husband Lonnie Curtis, owned equal shares and profited greatly. Despite the large sums of money the family was making from Dean's efforts, some weren't happy. Indeed, his own mother was among the least thrilled and often criticized his actions.
Dean's mom Katina believed that Dean was pushing family members out of the business, which upset her greatly, especially when he hired advisors to assist in operations. Outsider involvement was clearly frowned down upon by the family. According to William Dear and Carlton Stowers's book "Please Don't Kill Me:" The True Story of the Milo Murder, Dean's wife Maggie suggested that his relationship with his mother had further deteriorated because he spent more time with his wife and kids than with her. It was suggested in the book that her resentment and jealousy greatly interfered with family business and even pitted sibling against sibling. Dear and Stower quoted Maggie as saying that Lonnie and Fred loved ganging up on Dean because it made them feel "they were important in Katina's eyes."
Family tensions intensified when Dean fired Fred, Sophie and Lonnie for allegedly siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars from the B&B business account and pouring the money into another family owned company, which they ran named Mico. Maggie was further quoted in the book as saying, "By firing them, he in effect gave them a lifetime pass to run and play while never having to worry about money ever again." However, none of them was happy. One of Dear's goals was to find out whether either of them was unhappy enough to kill.