The Grand Canyon Black Widower

Colorado, 1978–1994: Three wives, five murders, one man at the center.

In December of 1978, three members of a family in Arapahoe County, Colorado, were found dead in their home. Police concluded that the mother had shot her two children and then herself, leaving behind a devastated husband.

In April of 1993, a woman fell to her death in the Grand Canyon while hiking with her husband. The man appeared heartbroken on television as he recounted the terrible accident.

Then in October of 1994, a third woman died of a presumed overdose shortly after reconnecting with her ex-husband.

These three cases had one thing in common: Robert Spangler, the grieving widower. Was it a cruel twist of fate that this one unassuming man should face the tragic and unexpected deaths of three wives? Or was he actually the architect of these seeming tragedies? When Spangler was diagnosed with terminal lung and brain cancer, investigators at the FBI realized they had only a short time to get him to confess the whole truth.

Journalist Vincent Manilève meticulously retraces the path of this chilling serial killer, from his Colorado homes and hiking trips to a federal district court in Arizona.

50 States of Crime: France’s leading true crime journalists investigate America’s most notorious cases, one for every state in the Union, offering up fresh perspectives on famously storied crimes and reflecting, in the process, a dark national legacy that leads from coast to coast.

Riveting . . . The story’s little-known subject matter makes for genuinely suspenseful reading. . . . An entertaining work of true crime.”
—Publishers Weekly

Vincent Manilève is a freelance journalist specializing in digital culture. He has worked for Slate and L’Express, and now writes for Le Monde, La Revue des Médias, and Arrêt sur Images. He is also a commentator on the political show Backseat on Twitch and the author of YouTube, Behind the Screens (Lemieux Éditeur, 2018).

Translated by Lynn Palermo.