He’s a Murderer With an Intergalactic Alibi. And She’s in Love With Him.

This is the story of a romance that just works — cosmic conspiracies, life sentences and all.

Illustrations by Sam D'Orazio

One afternoon in late October 2007, Jo Ann Richards, a bookkeeper and grandmother from Southern California, sat in a quiet room to collect her thoughts. She was an invited speaker at Probe UK, the “longest-running UFO/paranormal/spiritual conference” in the United Kingdom. The speech she was about to give was one of many firsts she’d experienced so far on her trip: it was her first time overseas, her first time seeing Stonehenge, and her first time presenting at a conference. And her first talk was no small affair — she was going to speak about her husband Mark Richards, and his involvement with shadowy branches of the United States military and his travels to worlds far beyond our own.

As she sat in that back room, she could feel Mark cheering her on. But the sensation was bittersweet, as he could not see her speak firsthand: Mark is serving a life sentence for orchestrating a 1982 murder allegedly carried out to fund the takeover of Marin County, Californ…