Hey everyone, I'm Ashley Banfield and this is Drop Dead Serious and today you might need a roadmap

for this one because this is one tricky little puzzle. It's the story of the Adelson family

and a murder for hire plot and one person after the other

going down and being locked away except for the mom slash grandmom slash grandma Gotti as the

internet has dubbed her. Donna Adelson is on trial currently in Florida. And this is a story

that involves a murder for hire plot of her former son-in-law and then her kids and her husband

and Vietnam and hit men and ex-girlfriends, and it is super confusing.

So I put together this little flowchart, and together with my studio manager, we are going to

sort through this entire story and give you all the background and tell you what's happening

in court right now, because there are witnesses and there are witnesses.

And there is nothing like jailhouse snitches and ex-cons

who take the stand. It just makes for sort of this whole delicious true crime story that is very

true and there is a hell of a lot of crime. So stick with me if you haven't heard of the case of Donna

Adelson or Wendy Adelson or Dan Markell or Charlie Adelson. And the list goes on. I've got all

the explosive background and the testimony and the opening statements and the first witnesses. You ready

to get started? Okay, buckle up. Here we go. More than 10 years ago,

a brilliant law professor named Dan Markell pulled into his driveway in Tallahassee, Florida,

and was gunned down in cold blood right there in his car. But this was not a random act of violence.

This was a murder for higher plot. And it was planned,

and it was paid for, and it was executed with precision. There were even two takes, two go-rounds

on this murder. And at the center of it all, a bitter custody battle that continued after his

divorce was finalized. Dan Markell was fighting

...