Inmate Name: Susan D?Aquila
Charge: First-degree murder
Sentence: 60 years in prison
Prison: Lincoln Correctional Center

Susan D?Aquila grew up the second youngest in a family with seven children on Chicago?s south side. She was just eight years old when her father died in 1963. As she got older, Susan just knew she was gay, but one brief relationship with a boy at age 15 left Susan pregnant with a daughter. Susan let her mom take care of the baby and moved out on her own to make a life for herself as an independent, single gay woman. She was in her mid-twenties when she met 50 year old Tony D?Aquila, a long-time groundskeeper for the forest preserve in a suburb of Chicago. Tony was physically disabled with scoliosis, arthritic hands and clubbed feet for which he wore special shoes.

In November 1985 after a five-year friendship, 30-year-old Susan and 56-year-old Tony surprised everyone by getting married. But Tony?s co-workers and friends suspected that something was not quite right about the new marriage. Some of them suspected that Susan married Tony to take advantage of the little money that he had. Susan denies the marriage was for money, and although his friends refute it, she says that she and Tony married to keep his secret that he was gay.

The newlyweds purchased a home in Cicero, a Chicago suburb, which soon became a boarding house for Susan?s down and out friends. Tony confided in co-workers about the difficulties he was having at home, and that he was being mistreated by his new wife and her friends. He would tell his friends that he had been beaten up by Susan?s friends but refused to call the police because he loved her. Susan denies any abuse and claims that Tony hurt himself in fights that broke out when they were partying. Tony moved out of the home and took up residence at a local hotel but would come to the house to visit.

At the end of May, Tony came to the house where everyone was partying. The group piled into one car and headed out to Hoffman Dam on the Des Plaines River. The party of six walked to the riverbank. Tony went in the water, and Susan admits her recollection is hazy due to alcohol and marijuana, but claims he went in voluntarily. The prosecution says Susan and her boarder James Johns pushed Tony and watched him drown. The group split up and Susan and another of her friends went to a local bar. Susan says she assumed her friend was calling 911 but he called the rest of the gang to join them at the bar. No one called 911. Susan claims it was her fear of her boarder James Johns that kept her from calling 911.

Two days later, authorities found Tony?s body floating face down just above the Hoffman dam. The investigation also found evidence that Susan?s car had been at the dam that night. Police were able to get James Johns to confess that he and Susan pushed Tony into the river. James was arrested on the spot and Susan and her other friends who were at the dam that night were also arrested.

Susan was convicted of murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison. She maintains she is innocent.