Esther Gruenwald is the domineering mother of Harvey Gruenwald, confined to oxygen for emphysema and butalbital for migraines. She hated Harvey appealing to the rich and famous with limo driving and event planning, so when she heard retired actress Marion Whitney’s husband James died, Esther became jealous when Harvey was running her return to stardom. Esther used her senior center’s dot-matrix printer to anonymously accuse Marion of murdering James, and he was indeed positive for poison once exhumed.
Harvey was really the killer of James, so Marion would pay off his debts. As Marion desperately wanted to return to fame, when she realized Harvey’s guilt, she bribed his former employer, loan shark Nick Weaver, to send a hit man to bludgeon Esther to death. The detectives found her when coming back to question her, and Harvey was devastated. After Marion convinced him to keep going, they were pressured into rolling on each other by police and arrested from that testimony. (CI: “Unrequited”)