Why Was Linda Collins Killed? A Senator's Mysterious Murder

After A Popular Former Arkansas Lawmaker Is Fatally Shot, The investigation Takes A Shocking Turn—with The Arrest Of Her Best Friend

- Steve Helling

In the small town of Pocahontas, Ark., Linda Collins and Rebecca O’Donnell were such close friends that people rarely saw one without the other. From having coffee together to planning joint vacations, the women seemed inseparable. “I called them Frick and Frack,” says Anne Norris, who knew both women. “They were as close as two friends can possibly be.” The friendship was so close that when Collins, a former Arkansas state senator, was going through an acrimonious divorce from her husband, a well-connected judge, O’Donnell testified on her behalf. “If you ever wanted to know what was going on with Linda, you could ask Becky, and vice versa,” says another friend. “They called each other sisters, even though they weren’t blood relations.”