Affluent LI Surgeon Who Murdered Wife Dies: Reports

GREAT NECK, NY — An affluent Great Neck surgeon who was convicted of murder in his ailing wife's fatal 1975 overdose and who was freed decades later when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, has died, according to multiple media reports. He was 99.

Dr. Charles Friedgood died in West Palm Beach, Florida, on May 19, 2018, his daughter Esther Zaretsky confirmed to The New York Times. His death was not previously reported. Friedgood admitted he injected his 48-year-old wife, Sophie Friedgood, with painkillers, but maintained he did not intend to cause her death.

Prosecutors said Charles Friedgood planned to kill his wife and then fly to Europe to be with a nurse who had cared for his wife and with whom he'd fathered two children. Charles Friedgood signed her death certificate with a cause of death as a stroke, and swiftly moved her body to another state for a Jewish burial, according to The Times. He was arrested at an airport about $450,000 in his wife's money, bonds and jewelry.

Charles Friedgood was sentenced to 25 years to life, serving 31 years, Newsday reported. He was part of a successful class-action lawsuit that said New York wrongly denied parole to felons involved in serious crimes. He was freed from prison in 2007 with terminal cancer and was the state's oldest inmate, Newsday reported.