The car that pulled into Alice McArthur’s Little Rock driveway had a homemade delivery sign and no license plate. A neighbor saw a man get out holding flowers. It was July 2, 1982. Alice had survived a bombing. This time, she was shot and killed inside the house. The arrangement remained at the scene. [1]
The earlier attack
Eugene “Yankee” Hall told jurors he and Mary Lee Orsini had planned to kill Alice. The court’s opinion recounts his description of the bombing and the witnesses who identified Orsini as the woman with him when explosives were obtained. Phone billing linked her number to a call about the purchase. Alice survived without serious injury. The failed attack left records and people who could check parts of what Hall later said. [1]
A delivery and a call
Hall said the plan changed to a shooting. Larry McClendon went with him, and they posed as a delivery service. A florist on Kavanaugh Boulevard identified the arrangement recovered from Alice’s house. A witness at Phillips Wrecker connected the men with the sign. The neighbor could put the car and flowers at the house. [1]
A recorder and tracing device had been installed on the McArthur phone. A call at 1:59 p.m. came from Orsini’s residence, and witnesses identified her voice. Hall said its purpose was to see if Alice was home. Orsini had also set an appointment for four with Alice’s husband, attorney Bill McArthur. People at his law firm confirmed it. Bill was investigated and arrested but never indicted, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. [1] [2]
A tip manufactured after the murder
The deception did not end when the men left Alice's house. Within days, Orsini told an acquaintance, Larry Burge, that an anonymous caller had identified Larry McClendon as the killer. She asked Burge to pass the information to the sheriff without identifying himself. He did, and the sheriff later confirmed receiving it. That first message gave the appearance of an outside lead arriving independently of the people already connected to the case. [1]
The next day Orsini contacted Burge again. This time, according to his testimony, she supplied yellow pages containing information she wanted him to repeat. He agreed to call her and pretend to be an anonymous source. Orsini recorded the performance and took the recording to the sheriff as though an unknown informant had called her. At trial, Burge identified the handwritten pages she had given him. [1]
For the prosecution, the important connection was between the recording and its preparation. A tape alone could have sounded like a new witness implicating McClendon. Burge's account and the notes instead placed Orsini behind the supposedly independent message. The Arkansas Supreme Court treated the staged call and its inside information as corroboration of Hall's account of the conspiracy. This was evidence about how the story was constructed, not simply another repetition of Hall's accusation. [1]
The tape had sounded like an outsider coming forward. Burge could describe the instructions that came before the recording, and he identified the pages Orsini had handed him. Jurors had the performance and the account of how it came to be made. [1]
Testing an accomplice
Orsini argued on appeal that Hall’s testimony was insufficiently corroborated.
The court disagreed. It pointed to witnesses associated with the earlier bombing, the telephone evidence, the flower arrangement and other circumstances connecting her to the preparations.
The distinction was not between a perfect witness and a wholly useless one. An admitted participant could describe the plan while independent evidence helped jurors evaluate whether the account was reliable.
The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed Orsini’s capital felony murder conviction in 1984. She had been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
The secondary biographical account records her death in 2003. It also distinguishes a separate conviction concerning her husband’s death that was overturned. That separate case should not be used to blur the outcome in Alice’s prosecution.
Alice had survived the first attack. The second reached her through an ordinary-looking delivery. The flowers remained where the men left them, and a florist could identify them when investigators came asking. [1]
Case brief
Little Rock, Arkansas · 1982
- Recorded outcome
- Mary Lee Orsini convicted of capital felony murder; affirmed 1984; died 2003
Key moments
People in this case
- Mary Lee Orsini
Convicted in Alice McArthur’s murder
Photo at source · Oxygen · labeled case photograph
Look closer · 3 visuals
Inside the evidence.
Open a visual to explore what it contributed to the case—and the limits of what it shows. These original illustrations explain the record; they are not photographs of the actual evidence.
The flowers at the door
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The arrangement and florist sign made the cover story concrete; independent witnesses corroborated preparation details.
Original drawing of generic flowers, not the actual bouquet.
A call recorded in two ways
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The call to Alice’s home supplied timing and voice evidence beyond Hall’s account.
No authentic telephone, waveform or call recording is presented.
An “anonymous” tip with a script
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
Burge identified notes supplied by Orsini for the staged call. The court treated this as corroboration of her involvement.
The diagram paraphrases the sequence and does not recreate the yellow pages.
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
Follow the locations
Put the story on the map.
Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.
Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- Orsini v. State
- Mary Lee Orsini — Encyclopedia of ArkansasBill McArthur never indicted; Orsini died 2003; separate conviction overturned.
Editorial review: 2026-11-12 · 688 words