Former Advertising Executive Gets 70 Years in Jail

A man who was once a prominent advertising executive is now facing 70 years in jail for holding his ex-wife hostage for over twelve hours and burning down the home that once belonged to the two of them. At his sentencing, he made a statement in which he declared that he has, in fact, hired an assassin to kill his ex-wife.

The man being put behind bars is Richard Shenkman who is 62 years old and was just sentenced by the Hartford Superior Court. The jury convicted him of 10 charges. Each charge had to do with kidnapping, assaulting, threatening, and arson, as he burnt the home that he and his ex-wife once shared together. His sentence could have been 80 years in prison but as he was sentenced, the total years behind bars were set to 70 years.

Nancy Tyler is the ex-wife of Shenkman. She and Shenkman were in the process of divorce court hearing when he decided to abduct her from parking garage of the office in which she worked in the downtown area of Hartford, Connecticut. The kidnapping took place on July 7, 2009. When he abducted her, he forced her by gunpoint to drive several miles to a home that was located in the South Windsor area.

On the day of the abduction, Tyler and Shenkman were supposed to show up for a divorce court hearing in the morning. If Shenkman did not turn over the house to Tyler, he would have had to face some jail time as not turning over the house would have been contempt of court.

During prior court hearings, Tyler had already testified that Shenkman made threats to kill her and even shot a gun off directly near her head. Tyler also claimed that Shenkman threatened to blow the house up. During the abduction, Tyler was able to get away while Shenkman dealt with a standoff with police. He was finally arrested as he ran out of the house, after setting fire to it first.

While the sentencing took place, Shenkman told the Judge, Julia Dewey, that he has already hired someone to murder Tyler. The judge decided not to delay sentencing and Shenkman was sentenced to 70 years in prison. Shenkman spoke out and said, “When Nancy Tyler’s lifeless body is lying in the morgue … I will have made my point.” In an eerily manner, he also said, “There is nothing this system can do to prevent Nancy Tyler’s murder.”

Richard Shenkman is the brother of Mark Shenkman, a man most commonly known for being the President and Founder of one of the biggest money management firms, Shenkman Capital Management. In fact, Richard Shenkman’s advertising firm, Primedia, even produce the Gayle King Show, which aired in 1997.