I was looking through my Goodreads yesterday and came across Poison Candy, The story of Dalia Dippolito. If you aren’t familiar with her criminal case, I am a little shocked, because it’s kind of wild. It involves a love story, the mob, a hitman and even reality TV. Let’s get into this.

This case truly fascinates me, so I decided to look her up and found the SNAPPED! episode about her (season 8 episode 2) on Peacock.

This is Michael Dippolito. He’s a bit of a cutie, but what’s with the boxing action figures on his desk? He is a former bad boy from Philadelphia who was previously incarcerated for fraud and had ties to organized crime. When he met Dalia in 2008, he had been on probation for 6 years with no issues. Suddenly 1 months after they got married, the police started to receive anonymous tips that Michael was selling steroids and drugs. Nothing was found until the 3rd incident when his vehicle was searched outside a restaurant and they found cocaine under his spare tire. It wasn’t enough for the police to believe he was actually dealing drugs, and they believed his confused reaction so they didn’t arrest him for the drug violation. I have never moved my spare tire, so lord only knows what’s underneath that thing.

When having her husband arrested didn’t work, Dalia upped the ante and asked an old friend to help her find someone to kill her “abusive” husband. Her friend was freaked out by their discussion and contacted the police, who set up a sting operation. Dalia told the undercover officer that she was 5000% sure that she wanted her husband killed. She even suggests a public murder outside of the bank where the killer could use his withdrawal for payment. On the day of the expected murder, she was called by police and asked to come home from the gym. When she arrived, her home was surrounded by crime scene tape. A detective told her that Michael was dead and Dalia began to sob. I’m pretty impressed with her acting abilities. Listening to her cry gave me that heartbreak feeling in the pit of my stomach. She could have won an Emmy with that performance.

Her acting skills continued to shine in the interrogation room. She tried to point the police toward his former mob connections and the people he had stolen from. When confronted by the “hitman” and told everything was on tape, she played dumb and kept insisting that she didn’t do anything. When she learned Michael was still alive, she tried to get him to believe she was innocent, even calling him from jail to plead her case.

It took a year and a half for this case to be presented in court. That’s when we learn that her defense was Reality TV. Her attorneys claimed that her friend who turned her in, and Michael both wanted to get on reality TV but things went too far and Dalia got arrested. Her attorneys questioned Michael on the stand for 3 days asking about reality television once, but bringing up his probation so many times that Michael called her attorney a parrot who just repeated the same thing. Dalia’s trial also brought a new person into the picture. She had been sexting with a guy called “We’ll Hung Kevin”. 😂🤣😂 Is this like when you call the guy built like a refrigerator “Tiny”? Was she hoping to live with this guy after Michael was dead? So many questions. Of course, Dalia never takes the stand. Her team does bring out a computer forensics expert who claims Michael was looking up casting calls for reality TV in Florida and for VHI, but did he click on any of those, or was it just part of the junk that comes up if you look up a show? MTV was filming The Paper in Florida in 2008.

Dalia was found guilty of Solicitation to commit murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Michael was granted a divorce from Dalia in 2011. Dalia appealed her conviction, and was granted a new trial based on the belief that the judge should have questioned each juror individually about their knowledge of the case through the media. While awaiting her 2nd trial Dalia was living with her mother under house arrest and gave birth to a son. Her 2nd trial ended with a hung jury, but her 3rd trial lead to a conviction and 16 year prison sentence. She is not expected to be released until 2032, the same year Michael Dippolito’s probation is set to end.