Rita Gluzman was born in 1948 in Chernivtsi, Soviet Ukraine, into a Jewish family of Holocaust survivors. Her early life was marked by profound trauma and instability. When she was ten, Gluzman was raped by a police officer, an incident her mother insisted be kept secret. The following year, her father was sent to an internment camp, and her mother abandoned Rita and her younger sister for two years. During this time, Rita survived by scavenging for food and relying on neighbors’ charity while caring for her sibling. These early experiences left deep emotional scars that shaped her adult life.

In 1969, she married Yakov Gluzman, a childhood acquaintance and promising scientist. The couple had a son named Ilan. When Soviet authorities refused to issue Yakov an exit visa during a wave of Jewish emigration in the early 1970s, Rita launched a relentless international campaign to secure his release. She organized petitions, met with diplomats, and staged an 18‑day hunger strike, ultimately gaining the attention of global leaders including U.N. Secretary-General U Thant, U.S. Ambassador Rita Hauser, President George H. W. Bush, and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Her activism paid off. In November 1971, after pressure from international figures and media coverage, Soviet authorities allowed Yakov to emigrate. The couple reunited in Vienna on November 25, and two days later they settled in Israel with Rita’s parents. They both enrolled at Tel Aviv University, where Rita studied chemistry and Yakov pursued biology. Their early years abroad reflected a shared vision of a stable, successful future together.

The Gluzmans eventually moved to the United States, where Yakov became a respected cancer researcher and co‑founded an electroplating company, E.C.I. Technology, with Rita. Outwardly, they lived the American success story — but by the mid‑1990s, their marriage had deeply deteriorated. Yakov accused Rita of being financially irresponsible and abusive, while Rita claimed Yakov was having an affair in Israel. She allegedly tried to blackmail him with photographs of his suspected mistress and illegally tapped his phone. Divorce proceedings in 1996 set the stage for a violent and calculated murder plot.

On April 6, 1996, the bitter collapse of the Gluzmans’ marriage reached a horrific conclusion. Fearing financial ruin and the potential loss of control over their company, Rita plotted to murder her husband. She enlisted the help of her cousin, Vladimir Zelenin, whom she had previously helped immigrate to the United States and employed at E.C.I. Technology. According to Zelenin’s later testimony, Rita warned him that if Yakov divorced her, the company would fail and he would lose his job.

The pair meticulously planned the murder. Rita took Zelenin to Home Depot and Grand Union to purchase an axe, a hatchet, and garbage bags. On the evening of April 6, they entered Yakov’s home in Rockland County, New York, where they ambushed him. Yakov was stabbed and struck repeatedly with the axe and hatchet before being dismembered. The brutality of the killing shocked investigators — Yakov’s body was cut into pieces with a hacksaw.

Zelenin was apprehended before he could dispose of the remains. Police caught him attempting to dump ten garbage bags filled with Yakov’s body parts into the Passaic River, and he was found covered in blood. Zelenin immediately implicated Rita in the plot.

Rita fled and evaded authorities for six days before being captured on April 12, 1996, breaking into a cabin on Long Island belonging to Yakov’s former employer. Police found a stolen license plate on her car, along with a passport and travel books for Switzerland and Australia, suggesting she was preparing to flee the country.

Prosecutors charged Gluzman under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which criminalizes crossing state lines with the intent to harm a spouse. She became the first woman ever convicted under the Act and the first person charged with murder under its provisions. Federal prosecutors pursued the case because physical evidence directly linking her to the killing was limited, and Zelenin’s testimony was the prosecution’s strongest evidence.

During the trial, Zelenin described in detail how Rita masterminded the plan and participated in both the attack and the cover‑up. The defense argued that Zelenin acted alone, but the jury rejected this claim. On April 30, 1997, Rita Gluzman was convicted of interstate domestic violence resulting in death and sentenced to life imprisonment.​