In 1992, Melissa was convicted of manslaughter in the death of her second husband, Gordon Stewart. She claimed that as she attempted to get away from him after he had raped her, she had to drive over him, twice. She was released from prison in 1994, after becoming the sympathetic focus of an NFB documentary When Women Kill, and established herself publicly as a victim of spousal abuse.

Melissa married widower Robert Friedrich in June 2000. His health deteriorated soon after that and his family suspects Melissa in his death. Her next lover, an elderly man living in Florida named Alex Strategos whom she met online, was committed to a nursing home after he suspiciously began to get sick. While he was in there, Melissa helped herself to his bank account.

The fifth estate’s Linden MacIntyre talks to the family members of the dead men as well as Melissa’s last lover, Alex Strategos. He reveals Melissa drugged him with so much medication that he ended up in the hospital eight times in just under two months and signed over power of attorney to a woman he barely knew.

We also meet Florida businessman Sunny Decker, the man who could have become Melissa’s next victim had she not been arrested. Decker was one of twenty men from across the United States and Canada who Melissa made contact with via an Internet dating site. She had dinner with Decker while Alex Strategos was sitting in a nursing home.

How does Melissa account for these allegations and her actions? In an exclusive interview from a Florida prison, Melissa talks publicly to Linden MacIntyre about her life, her loves and her crimes.