Original Playboy Club bunny convicted in husband's 1992 murder released on parole
A former Playboy Club bunny who was convicted for her involvement in a murder-for-hire plot is set to spend New Year's as a free woman after being granted parole in connection with her husband's death in Phoenix in the early 1990s.Carole J. Gold, currently 84 years old, was convicted in 1997 for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and first-degree murder of her husband, Charles "Chuck" T. Gold, aged 51, who was fatally shot Oct. 20, 1992.
Carole Gold was released Aug. 31 from the Perryville prison complex, according to the Arizona Department of Correction Rehabilitation & Reentry inmate records.
Archives from The Arizona Republic reveal a complex case that led to the conviction of Gold, her son and a third defendant.
Crime scene
Carole J. Gold, a former Playboy bunny who worked at the original Playboy Club in Chicago when it opened in 1960, crossed paths with Chuck at a Playboy resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The two tied the knot in 1978.After relocating to Arizona, the Golds operated the stables at Pointe Tapatio Cliffs. Chuck, taking on the role of the Old West hero Black Bart, engaged in performances at the stables and various charity events.
Carole found a lifeless Chuck, decked out in his character’s signature all-black attire, lying on the kitchen floor of the house they shared in the area near East Grovers Avenue, between North Central Avenue and North 7th Street.
Chuck Gold was killed with a .22 caliber handgun, suspected to be equipped with a homemade suppressor.
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Motive
Prosecutors alleged Carole had Chuck killed in pursuit of an approximately $160,000 insurance payout.
Chuck threatened to kick out Carole’s son, Kenneth Ashton Cottini, then 20, upon finding him smoking marijuana in the stables. Cottini had become addicted to Nubain, a synthetic form of heroin.
A prosecutor argued mother and son previously tried killing Chuck Gold with rat poison.
The stepson offered $9,000 to his dealer, Robert William Pryor, around 33 at the time, to kill Chuck Gold, while Carole footed the bill.
Cottini was charged with murder in September 1993, and Carole Gold was charged in August 1995.
Convictions
Pryor received a 20-year prison sentence through a plea deal. Inmate records do not show Pryor’s status.
Pryor pointed to Danny Jay Goddard as the person who carried out the murder of Chuck Gold. In a 1995 trial where Cottini was the defendant, Goddard received immunity by testifying against Cottini. The trial ended in a hung jury after one juror remained unconvinced about the defendant’s guilt.
During a joint trial against mother and son, Cottini pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a sentence of at least 18 years in prison. However, according to inmate records, Cottini was released from prison in September 2011.
Before being convicted, Carole Gold had spent at least two years in jail awaiting trial. She had not posted bail as she had spent all her money on her son’s defense.
"I had nothing to do with this crime," Carole Gold said in court before her sentencing on Oct. 14, 1997. "I always loved Chuck Gold."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Carole J. Gold released decades after conviction in Phoenix murder
