Roger Nicholas Angleton lived most of his life outside the public eye, overshadowed by his older brother Robert Angleton, a wealthy bookmaker operating a multimillion-dollar sports betting scheme in Houston, Texas. Roger’s upbringing and personal background are not widely documented, but he maintained a complicated relationship with Robert.

By the 1990s, Roger was known to have legal troubles of his own. He had been arrested in California on unrelated charges prior to April 1997 and missed a scheduled court appearance. Little is known about his career or personal life outside of his involvement with Robert.

Family ties brought Roger into a deadly plan that would later unravel. Robert’s marriage to Doris Elizabeth Angleton was falling apart. Amid divorce proceedings and disputes over millions in hidden gambling profits, Robert allegedly sought a way to ensure Doris would not reveal information to the IRS or claim half of his wealth. Roger ultimately became the individual who carried out the murder-for-hire plot.

On April 16, 1997, Doris Elizabeth Angleton, a 46-year-old socialite and mother of twin daughters, failed to show up at her daughters’ softball game. Later that evening, Robert Angleton brought the girls home and discovered their front door ajar. Houston police soon arrived and found Doris dead inside the River Oaks residence, having been shot multiple times in the face and chest.

Investigators quickly suspected foul play tied to the couple’s contentious divorce and Robert’s illegal gambling empire. Attention turned toward Roger Nicholas Angleton after a series of unusual developments:

Just days after the murder, Roger skipped a California court appearance and was later intercepted at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with two guns hidden in his luggage. Before authorities could arrest him, Roger fled the airport, abandoning his suitcase. Inside, police found damning evidence—a written murder contract worth $100,000 and audio cassettes allegedly containing conversations between Roger and Robert discussing Doris’s murder.

Roger remained on the run for several days until he was arrested in Las Vegas for providing false identification. Extradited to Houston, Roger was placed in jail while awaiting trial. In 1998, before facing court proceedings, he died by suicide in his cell, cutting himself more than fifty times with a disposable razor.

In a suicide note left behind, Roger confessed to killing Doris but insisted that his brother Robert had no involvement in planning the murder. Despite this claim, many suspected that Robert had orchestrated the killing to silence his wife during their divorce and to protect his illegal fortune.

Robert Angleton was tried for the murder in 1999 and ultimately acquitted by a Houston jury. Years later, he was convicted of tax evasion and passport fraud, serving a federal prison sentence before being released in 2012. He was later indicted again for Doris’s murder but fled authorities.

Roger Nicholas Angleton’s death left many questions unanswered. His confession spared his brother from conviction in state court, yet controversy persists over whether Roger acted alone or was part of a larger plot. The murder of Doris Angleton remains one of Houston’s most infamous family-related contract killings, marked by betrayal, wealth, and a tragic ending for Doris and the Angleton family.