Liann Crosby (born Melissa Beck) is a professional swindler who turned her own son Dennis into her accomplice.
History[]
According to Liann, she was a poor single mother who raised her son Dennis on her own with only a welfare check. However, she was also a professional criminal whose livelihood mainly consisted of stealing and defrauding other people. According to Dennis, she would force him to commit petty crimes on her behalf, and when he refused, she would threaten to abandon him. Liann was also sexually abusive towards him, engaging in incestuous relationships with Dennis ever since he was a teenager. Eventually, Liann began targeting rich, older men, including Alex Robson, who mysteriously disappeared in Montego Bay, Jamaica, while he was there with Liann, who at the time was operating under the alias of Lillian Sobieski.
Months later, Liann married Henry Crosby, the head of Crosby Maritime, Inc. In order to inherit $18 million from him, Liann prompted Dennis, by then a young adult, to kill him by drowning him in his own pool, simulating suicide. Dennis obeyed, but when she requested him to also kill Joyce Pollock, a wealthy, older heiress who he married as part of another swindle, he refused because of his genuine love for Joyce. At that point, Liann tried to kill Joyce herself by sabotaging her gas heater, but she survived. Enraged by this, Dennis held Liann at gunpoint, intending to scare her. Instead, a fight broke out, during which Liann was slightly wounded by a bullet fired by Dennis's gun, which also accidentally killed her male escort, Stuart Wattman.
After Dennis's familial connection with Liann was uncovered during the ensuing investigation, Dennis invoked mental incapacity, claiming he killed Crosby under his mother's influence, and that he accidentally killed Wattman while in a state of severe emotional stress. When a plan by Joyce to kill Liann and get rid of her was uncovered as well, Dennis turned down a plea bargain to implicate his mother in exchange for dismissing the case against Joyce and reducing the penalty he faced if convicted. He was eventually found guilty of manslaughter in the first degree and attempted manslaughter in the first degree. As a result, Liann was never tried for her involvement in Dennis's crimes. (L&O: "Venom")