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Susan Cummings (born July 21, 1962, in Monte Carlo, Monaco) is an American heiress, best known for killing her boyfriend in 1997. She had been charged with homicide, but subsequently convicted of voluntary manslaughter only. She was released after serving 57 days. [1]
Cummings and her fraternal twin sister, Diana, are the only children of billionaire arms dealer Samuel Cummings. After the family moved to the United States, Samuel Cummings bought his daughters a lavish estate in Warrenton, Virginia, named Ashland Farms. It was here that Cummings shot Roberto Villegas on September 7, 1997.
Cummings sold the 340-acre (1.4 km2)Ashland Farm estate on the edge of Warrenton in Fauquier County, Virginia for $4.9 million in 2004. [2] She and her twin sister Diana moved to the 450-acre (1.8 km2) LeBaron Farm in Culpeper County, Virginia. Their manor house, designed by the firm of Versaci Neumann Partners, won recognition in the 2006 Washingtonian Residential Design awards.
Cummings had been in a relationship with Argentine polo player Roberto Villegas, who had emigrated to the U.S. in 1991. It was common for Argentine polo players to be recruited onto teams owned by wealthy landowners. The players would also be supplied with horses and accommodation.
Cummings met Villegas in 1995 and by 1996 the relationship had gotten more intense. He forwent returning to Florida for the polo season to help her on her farm. Cummings never paid Villegas for his work; however, she did pay his rent and costs for the horses he owned that he kept on her farm. Cummings had a lot of control over Villegas due to his not having a real income. By mid 1997, strains on the relationship were starting to show.
On the day of his death, Villegas was to play in a polo tournament representing Argentina. He left his apartment and traveled to Cummings's farm (where he also stored his gear). At 9 in the morning, Cummings shot Villegas four times in the second kitchen of the main house.
She told the 911 dispatcher and police that he had turned abusive towards her, threatening her with a knife. Villegas was found with a knife crossing his arm. Cummings had cuts on her arm, which police suspected were self-inflicted. She was arrested on charges of homicide. She was represented by Blair Howard. [1] [3] Howard's law firm claims he is one of the best ten lawyers in the country. [4]
Cummings was convicted on May 13, 1998, of voluntary manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend, and was sentenced to 60 days in jail and ordered to pay $2,500; she was released after serving 57 days. [1]
In 2002, this case was the focus of an episode of Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice . Entitled "A Scandal in Hunt County," this was the third episode of Season One.
In 2004, Lisa Pulitzer wrote a book on the case called A Woman Scorned. [5]
A Biography Channel program about the case included an interview with a young Tareq Salahi, who was a friend of Roberto Villegas. [6]
April 26, 2017 The Podcast "Small town Murder" Episode 15 "An Heiress & A Brutal Murder in Warrenton, Virginia" was done about the case.
Susan Cummings' case was featured in an episode of Behind Mansion Walls, and on the Investigation Discovery channel program Vanity Fair Confidential, season 2, episode 8, entitled "Love's Deadly Harness". [7]
Fauquier County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 72,972. The county seat is Warrenton.
Warrenton is a town in Fauquier County, Virginia, of which it is the seat of government. The population was 10,057 as of the 2020 census, an increase from 9,611 at the 2010 census and 6,670 at the 2000 census. The estimated population in July 2021 was 10,109. It is at the junction of U.S. Route 15, U.S. Route 17, U.S. Route 29, and U.S. Route 211. The town is in the Piedmont region of Virginia just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The well-known Airlie Conference Center is 3 miles (5 km) north of Warrenton, and the historic Vint Hill Farms military facility is 9 miles (14 km) east. Fauquier Hospital is located in the town. Surrounded by Virginia wine and horse country, Warrenton is a popular destination outside Washington, D.C.
Middleburg is a town in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 673 as of the 2010 census. It is the southernmost town along Loudoun County's shared border with Fauquier County.
Jacqueline Mars is an American heiress and investor. She is the daughter of Audrey Ruth (Meyer) and Forrest Mars, Sr., and the granddaughter of Frank C. Mars, founders of the American candy company Mars, Incorporated. As of November 2023, Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated her net worth at US$46.6 billion, ranking her the 23rd-richest person in the world. In the annual ranking of the richest women in the world in 2023, Forbes estimated her fortune at $38.3 billion and placed her in fourth place.
Eppa Hunton II was a Virginia lawyer and soldier who rose to become a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he served as a Democrat in both the United States House of Representatives and then the United States Senate from Virginia.
Ashland is the name of the plantation of the 19th-century Kentucky statesman Henry Clay, located in Lexington, Kentucky, in the central Bluegrass region of the state. The buildings were built by enslaved African Americans, and enslaved people grew and harvested hemp, farmed livestock, and cooked and cleaned for the Clays.
Upperville is an unincorporated village in Fauquier County, Virginia, United States, along U.S. Route 50 fifty miles from downtown Washington, D.C., near the Loudoun County line. Founded in the 1790s along Pantherskin Creek, it was originally named Carrstown by first settler Josephus Carr. Through an 1819 Act passed by the Virginia General Assembly, the name was changed to Upperville.
James Keith was a Virginia lawyer, soldier, politician and judge, who served as the chief judge of the Supreme Court of Virginia from 1895 to 1916.
The First 48 is an American documentary news magazine television series on A&E filmed in various cities in the United States, offering an insider's look at the real-life world of homicide investigators. While the series often follows the investigations to their end, it usually focuses on their first 48 hours, hence the title.
The Devil to Pay! is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by George Fitzmaurice and starring Ronald Colman, Frederick Kerr, Myrna Loy and Loretta Young. It was written by Frederick Lonsdale and Benjamin Glazer.
New Baltimore is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in eastern Fauquier County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 census was 8,119. The community has existed since the early 19th century, but it has had its most significant growth since the 1980s. It is the portion of Fauquier County with the easiest access to Washington, D.C., and as a result, many people who live in New Baltimore commute into DC. Other major communities close to New Baltimore are Warrenton, Gainesville/Haymarket area, and Manassas. The area officially considered to be New Baltimore expanded significantly in 2006 with Fauquier County's designation of service districts, of which New Baltimore is one. The service district designation provides added access to utilities such as water and sewer, and targets the area for growth.
Matthew "Matt" Carson is an American entrepreneur and author from Virginia. Carson's works include The Attic, A Christmas Story and On A Hill They Call Capital. In 2009 he ran as an independent candidate for Virginia House of Delegates, 30th District seat, losing to the Republican incumbent.
Samuel Cummings, was an American small arms dealer. He founded the International Armament Corporation in 1953, a company which came to dominate the free world market in private arms sales. He died on April 29, 1998, in Monaco after a series of strokes.
Robert Taylor Scott was a Virginia lawyer, politician and Confederate officer. Elected three times as Attorney General of Virginia, Scott also served one term in the Virginia House of Delegates and several terms as mayor of Warrenton, Virginia.
"Ghost of a Chance" is the second episode of the first season of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on February 3, 1993. The teleplay was written Noel Behn based on a story by executive producer Tom Fontana, and the episode was directed by Martin Campbell. In it Bayliss begins his investigation into the murder of 11-year-old Adena Watson, Munch and Bolander investigate the unusual death of an elderly man, and Howard insists she is receiving advice about her murder case from a ghost.
Timeline of Fauquier County, Virginia in the Civil War
Michael J. Webert is an American politician. A Republican, he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2011. He currently represents the 61st district, made up of Rappahannock County and parts of Culpeper, Fauquier and Warren counties, in the north central part of the state.
Raymond Belmont II was a champion polo player.
Susan Smith was an American FBI informant. She was strangled by her handler and lover, FBI agent Mark Putnam – the first FBI agent to be charged in a homicide.
Fannie H. Marr, born Frances Harrison Marr, was an American author and poet. At an early age, she contributed poems to newspapers and magazines. Many of her fugitive verses were incorporated in Local and National Poets of America and other standard collections of poetry. She was the author of three volumes of poems entitled Heart Life in Song (1874), Virginia and Other Poems (1881), and Songs of Faith (1888).
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