Case Study: The George Kogan Murder and Legal Proceedings

This case study meticulously examines the 1990 murder of George Kogan, a wealthy real estate investor, focusing on the involvement of his wife, Barbara Kogan, and her attorney, Manuel Martinez. The case details the bitter divorce proceedings, Barbara's refusal to cooperate with investigators, and her attempts to collect life insurance. The study outlines the evidence leading to the conviction of Martinez for hiring a hitman and Barbara's eventual guilty plea for conspiracy to commit murder. It provides insights into the unstable political climate of New York in the 1990s, where the murder took place. The case also explores the financial motivations behind the crime, the timeline of events, and the legal proceedings that spanned over two decades, culminating in Barbara's sentencing. The case study highlights the legal and ethical dimensions of the crime and the long-term consequences for those involved.

Running Head: CASE STUDY 1
CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY 2
The murder case of George Kogan
The entire study will be revolving around the murder case of the George Kogan that took
place in the year 1990. The wife of the multimillionaire was accused in this murder case
where she hired a gunman to gun down her husband. George Kogan was shot just in front of
his apartment that was located in the 69th street. However, Barbara Kogan the wife of George
at that time was going through a bitter divorce and eventually after the killing Barbara
refused to cooperate with the investigators. At that point in time instead of cooperating she
was fighting to collect millions from the life insurance policies of her husband. On the other
hand, just before this shooting took place George was on his way to meet with his girlfriend.
The name of his then-girlfriend was Mary-Louis Hawkins who once worked as the publicist
of George and she was only 29 years old. During that time both Barbara and George became
estranged and this made Barbara bitter. Negotiations for the divorce took place between
George and Barbara for the divorce and she demanded approximately $5000 per week in
alimony but the request was turned down by the judge so things between the Barbara and
George began to sour a lot.
Immediately after the murder took place Barbara aimed to collect approximately $4 million
as a part of the life insurance coverage and then she was suspected one of the main culprits in
the death of George. On a sad note, it took more than 20 years for the authorities to find out
that Ms. Kogan plotted with her lawyer named Manuel Martinez for hiring a hit man in terms
of carrying out the entire murder. However, the lawyer was found guilty in this entire murder
case in the year 2008 and after so many years of refusing finally, he agreed that the murder
was done after conspiring with Barbara in terms of hiring the hit man. Followed by it in the
year 2020, Barbara pleaded guilty for conspiracy to commit murder as well as the murder in

CASE STUDY 3
the first degree. Furthermore, she approximately faces up to 25 years in the prison on each
and every charge at sentencing that is scheduled in the 19th of May in the year 2010 (Taylor,
2009).
George Kogan was a well-known wealthy real estate investor with some of the financial
interest in the casino in Puerto Rico and also some of the buildings located in Brooklyn.
Initially, Barbara and George met in their college days and fell in love and then got married.
They had two children from their marriage and on the East 76th street, an antique store was
opened by them. However, in the 1980s they had separated and moved towards the divorce.
In the year 1989, George moved with his then-publicist and she was hired by the antique
store.
The date was 23rd October and the year was 1990 when George was walking towards his
apartment with some of the groceries in his hand when out of nowhere a gunman suddenly
arrived and in a calm manner approached him and then fired at his back and George was shot
3 times at his back. Initially the lawyer was not at all convicted of the murder but later on, he
was convicted and was charged and was serving a sentence of 25 years (Lentol, Weinstein &
Aubry, 2005).
20 years have passed till 2010 when the widow of George got a sentence of serving 36 years
in the prison for plotting the murder against her husband. It took more than 20 years to solve
this murder mystery of the famous multimillionaire business tycoon. When the court hearing
took place in 2010 it has been observed that Barbara did not offer any type of apology as she
was sentenced 36 years of imprisonment where she was ordered 12 years in the prison at
least. Ultimately Kogan pleaded guilty to the manslaughter along with some of the other
charges after getting to know that the prosecutors had some of the tapes of her making some
of the indecent remarks to one of her friend from the jail via a telephone. On the other hand,

CASE STUDY 4
it has been observed that Barbara was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and she has been
admitted to the hospital several times from past five years.
When Kogan’s moved to New York in 1987 when they had opened a store of antiques their
marriage fell apart as George left Barbara for a woman who was 20 years younger to him
who was hired for promoting their business. When these things were taking place Barbara
met with the lawyer named Martinez an attorney who was later on found to be another guilty
in the murder case because he helped Barbara to find a contract killer. When the shooting
took place just 1 week earlier to that incident Barbara called the life insurance firm of the
couple for confirming that if she was the sole beneficiary of the policy opted by her husband.
It has been testified by one of the lawyers of the company when Manuel Martinez’s trial was
ongoing in the year 2008. Just a few days before the murder took place both Barbara and
Martinez flew together to Puerto Rico and then borrowed a lump sum amount of money near
about $100,000 for paying the contract killer who was hired for murdering George.
Even after the incident took place, Barbara did not have any kind of suffering because she
refused to go to the hospital where her husband was admitted after the shooting. Instead of
that, she called one of the stylists for $500 in their apartment on that very day for getting her
hair done. Despite collecting any type of money from the life insurance she filed for
bankruptcy in the year 1998. Hawkins then girlfriend of George wrote one of the letters to the
court that Barbara made a mistake by killing his husband because she lost one person on earth
who actually cared for her special needs and always tried to keep her safe. One of the most
ironical thing, in this case, was no gunman has been ever charged for murdering George but
the prosecutor had earlier identified a suspect who denied killing Kogan. Finally, the
information that has been gathered to date at the trial helped the prosecutors in terms of
building their case against Barbara and she was highlighted seven months after the
conviction.

CASE STUDY 5
The political atmosphere of New York in 1990
It has been observed that during the 1900’s the political environment of New York was quite
unstable as an under-policed city the crime rate was out of control. Furthermore, it was
reported that almost 6 murders, 300 robberies, 10 rapes as well as 200 assaults approximately
took place in that time period. In the late 1900s, New York was regarded as completely
schizophrenic, divided city (Lockard, 2015). There was a lot of wealth that was poured into
the city but the city began to collapse for a lot of decades so the city also suffered from a lot
of homicide rates. Individuals feared crime at that time and they observed it coming mostly
from poor minority neighborhoods. On the contrary, it has been stated by the New York
Times that murder was regarded as the crime in the New York during the 1900s as murders at
that time suddenly increased to 185 when contrasted with the previous years in that country
(Bonomi, 2014).

CASE STUDY 6
References
Bonomi, P. U. (2014). A factious people: Politics and society in colonial New York. Cornell
University Press.
Lentol, J., Weinstein, H., & Aubry, J. (2005). The Death Penalty In New York. New York:
New York State Assembly.
Lockard, D. (2015). New England state politics (Vol. 2277). Princeton University Press.
Taylor, T. (2009). Murder and Mayhem in Chicago's Vice Districts. Arcadia Publishing.