Della's Web: A True Story of Marriage and Murder by Aphrodite Jones

Author:Aphrodite Jones
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: True Crime, Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9780671013790
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2002-04-29T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 41

“WHERE ARE YOU CALLING ME FROM?” CHERYL asked. “Della doesn’t know you’re calling, does she?”

“No, I’m on my car phone,” Darryl assured her.

“Well, where does the bill go? She’ll check all the numbers, you know.”

“No, she can’t. This bill goes to my office.”

“Oh, okay, good. I mean. Darryl, I’d love to help you, I know my mom told you to call, but if Della finds out, she could come burn my house down.”

“What do you know about that?”

“Nothing, other than she denies it.”

“Your mother said there was another boyfriend she tried to burn in his bed.”

“Yeah, I heard that. I think that’s true.”

“Why didn’t anybody ever tell me about all this?”

“You were already married to her, Darryl, and she’s always denied everything. The only time she’s ever been arrested is with Jeff.”

Cheryl filled Darryl in on the aggravated menacing charge her sister had been convicted of back in 1990. Evidently she threatened one of her boyfriends with a gun because he refused to marry her. Darryl decided to call Jeff Freeman and get as many details as possible, and when he identified himself as Dante’s husband, all Jeff could say was, “I’m sorry.”

Jeff explained that he initially brought Dante to court for terroristic threatening, that he really wanted her charged with attempted murder, but since the gun wasn’t fired, it wasn’t possible. Over the phone, Jeff confided that Dante had him so scared, he had gone to a police supply store and had bought himself a bulletproof vest. Back then, Dante was relentless, tormenting him at his brokerage firm, and even harassing his eighty-three-year-old mother. She claimed she was pregnant, but Jeff never believed her.

“It was like Fatal Attraction,” Jeff confided. “With that type of person, you can’t try to reach any kind of medium ground. You just have to be very forceful.”

“When she pulled the gun on you,” Darryl asked, “did you think she was going to use it?”

“Yeah. I have no doubt at all that she was gonna kill me.”

“Well, I think my life could be in danger.”

“You know, I would take her threats seriously. She looks sweet and innocent, but she’s really crazy.”

Jeff told the surgeon that he had every reason to be concerned. He gave Darryl the case number for her conviction in December 1990. The paperwork Darryl obtained from the courthouse showed that Dante Bassett had pled “no contest” to aggravated menacing. She had been fined $100, was sentenced to a year’s probation, and was deemed “emotionally unstable.”

Additionally, she was required to successfully complete the Crossroads program, which the court hoped would provide “some insight into why the torch of love is still being carried” by her, when it was clear that her ex-boyfriend had absolutely no desire to return her advances.

Throughout the proceedings, Dante was trying to gain sympathy, claiming to be pregnant. She was still hoping to establish the paternity of the child and wanted Jeff to have a blood test after the child was born. It was her first and only criminal conviction, and she walked away with a slap on the wrist.

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