The operation, dubbed "Foxglove," began in 1994 when police began investigating suspicious deaths of five elderly men found with the heart drug digitalis -- a natural poison derived from the foxglove plant -- in their bodies. All deaths were linked to a ring of young gypsie women who seduced and married the older men shortly before their deaths. The men were allegedly killed between 1984 and 1994 after being bilked out of more than $1 million in cash, property holding and investments. The eight suspects are believed to be part of the Tene-Bimbo clan in New York. The family's notoriety grew after they were highlighted in a 1974 book by Peter Maas called "King of the Gypsies," about three generations of New York Gypsies.
Department sources said investigators and prosecutors had debated for years whether they could ever convince a jury that any of the victims were actually murdered. The original investigators were pulled off the case and later accused of internal misconduct charges for allegedly violating police procedural guidelines. For several years, the Foxglove investigation was referred to as the "Case from Hell" by those who were close to it.
While traces of digitalis were found in the bodies of five alleged victims, they all were originally determined to have died of natural causes, according to law enforcement sources. The bodies of four men - Philip H. Steiner Jr., 93; Konstantin K. Liotweizen, 92; Nicholas C. Bufford, 87; and Stephen Storvick, 91 - were exhumed in 1994 for autopsies. An autopsy also was conducted on a fifth man, Harry Glover Hughes, 94, when he died in March 1994.