The PayPal hit: 'Jealous' woman accused of hiring bumbling assassin online and paying him $19,000 to kill her ex's new lover
Wannabe 'assassin' is already in jail in Ireland in copycat case
A ‘jealous’ ex-lover has been charged for trying to hire a bumbling hitman online to kill her former partner’s new girlfriend, authorities said.
Marissa Mark, 28, from Allentown, Pennsylvania is alleged to have hired Essam Ahmed Eid through his amateurish website www.hitmanforhire.net.
She wanted him to kill Anne Royston for $37,000 in 2006.
She is accused of paying a $19,000 deposit with three stolen credit cards through website PayPal.
Marissa Mark, left, is accused of hiring Las Vegas poker dealer Essam Eid, left, through his website www.hitmanforhire.net to kill her ex-boyfriend's new lover
The shoddy website said: 'Whether you are trying to put an end to a domestic dispute or eliminate your business competitors, we have the solution for you'
The hire-a-hitman website, which has since been taken down, said: ‘Assassinations are the most practical solutions to common problems. Thanks to the Internet, ordering a hit has never been easier. We manage a network of freelance assassins, available to kill at a moment's notice.’
Court documents show that PayPal refused to transfer the money Mark allegedly paid from three stolen credit cards, meaning Eid never received any money.
But the poker dealer at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas decided to make the trip Los Angeles anyway, where he promptly told Royston of Mark’s plan.
Eid – who went by the alias ‘Tony Luciano’ – offered to doublecross Mark and kill her for Royston.
He explained that the hit had been ordered because of her jealously that Royston was now in a relationship with ex-boyfriend Joshua Hammonds.
Scheming: Mark is alleged to have brewed up her plan at her Allentown, Pennsylvania home, paying Eid through Paypal with stolen credit cards
According to FBI accounts and court documents, Royston – who worked as a loan broker – was first contacted by Eid in September 2006 under the pretence of wanting to refinance his house.
He visited her officers in Woodland Hills, California with one of his two wives, Theresa Engle, posing as his assistant, and told her ‘Somebody wants your head. Somebody wants you killed and they hate you a lot.’
He said he decided against killing her because she reminded him of his own daughter and she could save her life and see Mark dead by settling the balance of the contract.
She was given a few days to raise the money, but instead called the police, leading to the FBI setting up a wiretap on the call.
Eid is in jail in Ireland for pulling a similar 'assassin' stunt and was sentenced to 6 years in 2008
He told Royston she only needed to pay $20,000 but when she said she was worried that someone else would be hired to kill her, the hit man told her not to worry.
He allegedly explained: ‘Only 700 people in the world work as hit men, and my father, Michael Luciano, is boss over all of them. If any of them got a contract on you, my father would know, and therefore, so would you.’
The day after the call was made, Eid and Engle flew to Ireland to attempt a carbon copy assassination double-cross for which he is now serving six years in jail.
Sharon ‘Lying Eyes’ Collins, the partner of a multi-millionaire Irish businessman also hired Eid through his tacky website.
She wanted PJ Howard and his two sons killed after he had promised his vast fortune to them, rather than her.
In an infamous Irish court case in 2008, Eid was jailed for offering to kill for Collins at a price of $90,000.
She sent him $23,700 initially, but, as with Royston, he decided to tell his targets about the plot.
In that case, he had planned to kill the two sons by spiking their drinks with poison Ricin in their favourite bar, adding that Howard would ‘fall’ from his Spanish apartment because of the grief.
Guilty: Sharon 'Lying Eyes' Collins asked Eid to kill her partner, businessman PJ Howard, right, and his sons. Eid flew to Ireland and told them of the plot, offering to 'spare' them if they stumped up $158,000 in a copycat plot to Miss Mark's story
Traces of the drug were found in Eid’s contact lens case and in his Las Vegas home.
Again acting as ‘Luciano’ Eid told the sons they could spare their lives for $158,000. Rather than pay, the sons called the police and Eid was arrested.
In this current case Mark was arrested in Jersey City, New Jersey and transferred to Allentown, Pennsylvania where she appeared in court charged with conspiracy, identity theft and other counts.
She was granted bail on a $150,000 bond.
There are rumours that the events could be turning into a movie.
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