Wrongful death cases against convicted murderers usually end in Pyrrhic victories, since most prisoners have empty pockets. Not so with Robert Reldan, who came into a fortune while serving a life sentence for multiple homicides and other crimes.

Reldan is the lifetime beneficiary of an $8.9 million trust set up under the will of his late multimillionaire aunt, Lillian Garis Booth of Alpine, N.J. — who, ironically, he once tried to have killed.