The FBI investigated whether Anna Nicole Smith plotted to kill her tycoon husband’s son as they battled for his father’s fortune, but the former Playboy Playmate, who died in 2007, was never prosecuted. Smith’s FBI records, obtained by the Associated Press, say the agency investigated Smith in 2000 and 2001 in a murder-for-hire plot targeting E. Pierce Marshall, who was at the center of a legal fight to keep the model and ex-stripper from collecting his father’s oil wealth. (The younger Marshall died three years ago of natural causes.) The documents released under the Freedom of Information Act depict an investigation going on as the fight raged over J. Howard Marshall II’s estate. Vast sections of the 100 pages of released materials - a fraction of Smith’s full FBI file - are whited out, and no evidence of her involvement in such a plot is detailed. There is no indication how authorities became aware of any alleged scheme, but agents interviewed Smith on July 3, 2000. Told why she was being questioned, “Smith began crying and denied ever making such plans,’’ a report said. Smith was 26 when she wed the 89-year-old Marshall, whose wealth was estimated to be $550 million. He died of natural causes in 1995, little more than a year after they wed. Smith died of a drug overdose at age 39. (AP)
