The mystery of Lita McClinton: Inside the heinous true story of socialite who was GUNNED DOWN on her doorstep on the same day she was divorcing her philandering millionaire husband – sparking 11-YEAR hunt for her killer

The death of a stunning American socialite who was brutally murdered on the day her divorce was due to be finalized rocked the community, but it would be years before her killer was identified.

Lita McClinton, 35, was shot dead outside her home in Atlanta, Georgia, after receiving a delivery of a dozen long-stemmed pink roses on her doorstep in January 1978.

It would later emerge that she was murdered by hitman Phillip Anthony Harwood, who was hired for a sum of $25,000.

The mastermind behind the dirty plan would later be revealed to be Lita’s millionaire husband James Vincent Sullivan – and his motivations were shocking.

Now a new true crime book is ready to expose the most sordid aspects of the case, bringing Lita’s brutal death back to the public’s attention, 45 years after she was murdered.

Journalist and author Deb Miller Landau will explore every aspect of the case in her debut book, A Devil Went Down to Georgia: Race, Power, Privilege, and the Murder of Lita McClinton, in which she explores the bitter decline of the socialite’s marriage. and her husband’s shocking decision to take her life.

Lita was the daughter of Georgia State Representative JoAnn McClinton and former U.S. Department of Transportation official Emory McClinton.

She grew up in the upper classes of African-American society, which meant a flurry of gala events and exclusive clubs.

The former debutante was just 22 years old when she first met James, who was ten years her senior, at a chic Atlanta boutique in 1976.

Her mother, Jo Ann, previously shared in an episode of Power, Privilege & Justice, “She thought Jim was a very charming, very thoughtful, very affable person.”

Originally from Boston, James had made his fortune by inheriting a liquor distribution company from his uncle, which he then sold.

But he struggled with his new millionaire lifestyle.

It was Lita who was able to completely transform Jim’s appearance by restyling his hair, revamping his wardrobe and ditching his glasses in favor of contact lenses.

The couple enjoyed a year-long courtship before tying the knot in a small ceremony in 1976, marking the start of a ten-year marriage.

By 1982, James had fallen in love with Palm Beach, Florida, and began buying homes before purchasing a sprawling, $4 million, 17,000-square-foot mansion just a few blocks from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

It became a symbol of James’ nouveau riche aspirations and he thought it would help him anchor himself in the social circles he had longed to be in – but it didn’t.

According to attorney David Boone, who spoke about the aforementioned documentary, he said, “Jim finds out that being a white man married to a black woman didn’t work for the Palm Beach social scene.”

And soon he started blaming Lita for all his problems and decided that she was the reason he wasn’t accepted.

It wasn’t long before James began to drive a wedge between him and his wife as he tried to keep her out of his life – with affairs and increasingly cruelty.

“He had grown into a terrifying bully, and she could barely remember those early days when he, a handsome white man ten years older than her, had shown up with his quirky Boston accent and swept her off her feet.” , author Deb revealed. in one piece Newsweek.

Lita eventually packed her bags and moved back to Atlanta, deciding she was finally ready to get rid of him.

“At the time, her family had hoped the flame would burn out; Lita’s parents knew what their daughter would face as the black half of an interracial couple in the South,” Deb said.

“Not to mention the fact that they never liked Jim…he was brash and obnoxious, with no respect for Southern norms.”

In 1985, she settled into a $400,000 mansion and filed for divorce, demanding half of the estate, including the Palm Beach mansion.

But on January 16, 1987, things took a tragic turn.

A hearing was scheduled for 2 p.m. that day, in which a judge would decide whether the former couple’s prenuptial agreement was binding.

But at 8 a.m. that day, the doorbell rang to lure Lita to the main entrance.

She walked to the door, wrapped in her pink silk robe, opened it and saw a ‘delivery person’.

Tragically, just seconds after greeting the five-foot-tall stranger, he shoved a box of roses he had been holding into her arms and pushed her into the foyer.

He took a gun from his jacket pocket and shot twice – with one of the bullets proving fatal to Lita – before the perpetrator slipped away.

Lita’s husband was immediately thrust into the spotlight, but he claimed he had a solid alibi in Florida for the time of the murder.

Disappointingly for her family, the case lingered for more than ten years.

Lita’s parents were relentless in their efforts to seek justice for their eldest daughter, with questions left unanswered for eleven years.

During that time, a 1992 federal indictment against James was dismissed for lack of evidence and a 1994 civil verdict for wrongful death was initially overturned on appeal, although it was eventually reinstated.

It was not until 1998 that investigators made a major breakthrough in the case.

A woman came forward claiming to be the girlfriend of truck driver Phillip Anthony Harwood, who had previously moved furniture for James.

She reported that she was with Harwood when the scorned husband handed over a $25,000 bundle of money.

It soon became clear that James had ordered Lita’s murder in an attempt to protect his finances and property during the divorce.

Harwood was arrested in 1998 and pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2003.

Meanwhile, an arrest warrant was also issued for James, but he fled the country. He was not taken into custody until 2002 after being arrested in Thailand.

Harwood initially agreed to testify in James’ murder trial, but claimed on the witness stand that he was innocent – as James’ defense argued the case was built on “circumstantial evidence.”

Nevertheless, jurors disagreed and convicted James of murder in March 2006 – along with a series of other charges. The decision was upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2008.

He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Harwood was sentenced to 20 years in prison before being released in March 2018.