Police: Woman may have burned down home in past

A Salley woman who appears to have hired an Aiken County man to kill her estranged husband and his son by burning down their North Carolina residence may have previously burned down a mobile home in Wagener that belonged to her first husband for insurance money, according to federal documents.

Judy W. Dickson is charged with murder for hire.

Federal agents say the woman schemed with a confidential witness to formulate a plan where he would travel to Shalotte, N.C., where her estranged husband, Raymon Dickson, was living with his son, and using bundles of pine straw, approximately five gallons of gasoline and books of matches, set fire to the home while the two slept.

Judy Dickson told the man she hired to kill her husband that the couple was in the midst of a divorce and she wanted to gain access to his retirement money as well as the insurance money while they were still legally married, according to federal documents. If her husband died "accidentally," the insurance money would double.

Raymon Dickson told agents that he and his estranged wife separated for the last time on Feb. 11 when she moved back to Salley. He said he had been paying her spousal support so she could maintain a residence there.

Salley Public Safety Chief J.D. Bledsoe said Raymond Dickson hadn't been living in the are for a very long period of time when, late last week, federal agents contacted him about the allegations and Judy Dickson's whereabouts.

It appears as if she plotted the murder n Aiken County and hired the man in Salley.

On Tuesday, Bledsoe, a Wagener officer and a federal agent went to her Hemrick Street home and took her into custody on the allegations that she paid the informant to set the house fire between midnight and 2 a.m. on Thursday, June 4.

Then, the witness was to travel back to Aiken County for an 11 a.m. appointment with his psychologist and call her to either tell her his "appointment went great" or "there is still a problem with my medicine," based on whether he had successfully killed the two, officials report.

Judy Dickson promised the man $10,000 for the murder, first giving him $280 for fuel, food and motel expenses, federal agents say.

He told agents that she had initially asked him if he knew anyone who could "take Raymon out" and when he said no, she devised the arson plan.

The witness said she told him that in 1994 or 1995 she burned down a trailer in Wagner that belonged to her first husband and had gotten away with it. She said she received some of the insurance money then.

The informant gave investigators a green spiral notebook with hand-written driving directions to the North Carolina that she had prepared for him, agents report.

She is being held on a $250,000 bond.

She is no longer at the Aiken County detention center.

Federal agents say, the witness contacted Raymon Dickson and played him recordings of the plot in late May.

Contact Karen Daily at kdaily@aikenstandard.com.