Family Man

A husband bails out his wife

When Anthony Toto, 37, a pizza-shop owner in Allentown, Pa., put up $50,000 bail for his wife Frances Lenore, the local police and others in the community were stunned. The reason: according to charges filed by the district attorney, Frances had conspired to murder her husband -- not once but twice.

The bizarre case began on Jan. 25. That night, prosecutors contend, Anthony Bruno, the 20-year-old boyfriend of Toto's 17-year-old daughter Elizabeth, crept into Toto's bedroom, located the .25-cal. gun that Toto kept near his bed and fired a bullet into his head. Toto was grievously but not fatally wounded.

Then his wife Frances allegedly began force-feeding him large doses of barbiturates, which succeeded only in putting him into a semiconscious state. Two days later, according to police, two friends of Anthony Bruno's, hired by Frances for $500, showed up in the bedroom to finish the job. They were Ronald Barlip, 19, and his cousin Donald, 18. The bullet one of them allegedly fired entered an inch from Toto's heart, but it too proved not to be lethal.

Police, tipped off by an informant, entered the Toto house two days later and found Toto asleep, breathing heavily: doctors later speculated that the barbiturates he had been given may have saved his life by drastically lowering his metabolism and retarding the bleeding.

Police arrested Frances, Bruno, the Barlips and the two Toto children, Elizabeth and Anthony. Toto was released from the hospital two weeks later, with the first bullet still lodged in his skull. He says he intends to stand by his family during the coming court proceedings. Said an Allentown police detective: "He loves her." The district attorney's office is said to be worried about the case: Tony Toto promises to be a hostile witness. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.