Jill Biden’s ex-husband is accused of killing his current wife

WASHINGTON - The ex-husband of former first lady Jill Biden was arrested and charged with murder in the death of his current wife, police in New Castle County, Delaware, said on Feb 3.

The ex-husband, William Stevenson, 77, was arrested on Feb 2 after a grand jury indictment charged him with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Linda Stevenson, 64, on Dec 28. William Stevenson was married to Mrs Biden from 1970 until their divorce in 1975.

Stevenson is being held in custody after he was unable to post US$500,000 (S$635,000) cash bail, police said. It was unclear whether he had legal representation. Police have provided no details about how Linda Stevenson died.

On Feb 3, several news vans and an unmarked police car stood sentry in front of Stevenson’s split-level home in the working-class Oak Hill neighbourhood of Wilmington. Two cars, a black SUV and a black sedan, sat in the driveway and a wreath with pink, green and white roses adorned the tan-coloured house.

Stevenson met Mrs Biden on a beach in 1969, when she was an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Delaware. They married six months later.

“I truly believed we were destined for each other,” Mrs Biden said in her memoir. “Looking back it may seem like a mistake of youth.”

Growing up outside Philadelphia, Stevenson had dreams of being a college football star. Family troubles led him to reconsider going to Ohio State and instead he attended the University of Delaware, he said on a local cable access show decades ago.

In 1971, Stevenson, then 23 and newly married, used a US$14,000 inheritance from an uncle to buy a bar in downtown Newark, Delaware, he said in a newspaper article. He renamed it The Stone Balloon and had a vision for entertainment that would draw college students.

In 1975, shortly before Mrs Biden’s divorce from Stevenson became final, she began to date Joe Biden, then the young senator from Delaware and an acquaintance of Stevenson, according to memoirs by Jill Biden.

Stevenson seemed to be in a perpetual battle with the city of Newark over construction permits and local newspapers chronicled his troubles paying taxes. Eventually, he sold the bar and in 2005 it closed.

“I always thought he was an interesting guy,” Mr Will Webber, who has known Stevenson since his early days running The Stone Balloon, said in an interview. “I never watched him mistreat anyone.” NYTIMES