Man Charged With Hiring Hit Man To Kill Family, Including His Wife And 7-Year-Old Daughter

Monday, May 21st 2007, 10:38 am

By: News On 6

BOSTON (AP) _ A man tried to hire a hit man to kill his family, including his 7-year-old daughter, even requesting that she be shot in the chest and not the head so there could be an open casket at her funeral, authorities say.

Authorities learned of the plot on Thursday and arrested the man, John Orlowski, on Friday. Orlowski, 49, was scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court Monday on the murder-for-hire charge.

``Thankfully the plot was uncovered by law enforcement, and three innocent victims avoided a horrible tragedy,'' U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said.

Orlowski met the man he wanted to kill his wife, daughter and mother-in-law earlier this year while they were both jail inmates, according to court documents.

He approached the man again after they were released, and even gave him a diagram of his wife's house indicating the location of bedrooms ``where the targets slept,'' and a location in the home where he could find a pistol. Orlowski offered him $2,000 to do the job himself or get one or more of his friends to do it, according to court documents.

But the man was troubled by the plot, especially the prospect of killing a child, so he told his mother, and she called the FBI. The man was unidentified in court papers, but the documents referred to him as a ``self-professed member of the Crips gang.''

Working with the FBI, the man met with Orlowski on Friday and taped a conversation in which Orlowski specified how many bullets he wanted in each victim _ one in the chest for his daughter and two each in the head for his wife and mother-in-law, according to authorities.

Orlowski and his wife were amid divorce proceedings, and she had taken out a restraining order against him earlier this year, according to court documents. In January, Orlowski was arrested at his wife's home and charged with violating the restraining order, domestic assault and battery and unlawful storage of firearms. Police seized 121 guns owned by Orlowski.

Orlowski was arrested a second time a month later at his wife's home, and charged again with violating the restraining order and unlawful possession of a machine gun. After his second arrest, he was jailed in Middleton, where he met the man he allegedly tried to hire to kill his family.

During the recorded conversation, the man repeatedly expressed concern that Orlowski might regret the killing of his daughter. But Orlowski assured the man that he would have no such regret, saying at one point, ``It's got more to do with my wife than anything,'' according to the affidavit.