Murder in Miami: Stan and Joyce Cohen

Cohen raced through three wives in less than a decade while growing his business.

He wasn't a handsome man in the traditional sense.

He was husky, balding and well short of 6 feet. He had a broad smile that did not quite compensate for oversized facial features.

Stan Cohen

But Stanley Cohen could be a commanding presence in any crowd. Like most self-made men, he was confident and engaging.

Cohen enjoyed the company of women, and he was never without a steady companion or two, whether he was between marriages or not.

His heavy wallet had plenty of sex appeal, even if Stanley didn't.

He was engaged to a woman who would have been his fourth wife when Joyce Lemay came into his life.

Cohen didn't have to look far to find her. A separated single mother who was new to Miami, she was working as a secretary at SAC Construction.

Cohen came to work one day and there she was.

He introduced her to his circle of close friends at a French restaurant in Miami one night in the fall of 1974. She was 16 years younger than Cohen, who had just turned 40.

Meeting Joyce forced Stan Cohen had to reorder his romantic life. He informed his fiancée that the engagement was off.

A few weeks later, on Dec. 5, 1974, he married Joyce Lemay in an extravagant affair at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas.