If you’ve spent any time digging into the dark underbelly of 1980s Hollywood, you’ve stumbled across the name Lanie Jacobs. Or Karen Greenberger. Or the "Blonde Widow."
She’s a woman of a dozen aliases and a history so tangled it makes The Godfather look like a bedtime story. But lately, people have been asking one specific question: is Karen Greenberger still alive?
It’s a fair question. The woman at the center of the infamous "Cotton Club" murder has been out of the spotlight for decades.
Honestly, the short answer is yes. As of early 2026, there have been no official reports of her death. But finding her isn't as simple as checking a verified Instagram account. When you've spent a huge chunk of your life in the California prison system and lived through the cocaine-fueled chaos of 1980s Miami, you tend to value your privacy—if you can get it.
The Woman Who Linked Hollywood to the Cartels
To understand if she's still around, you have to remember why she's famous. It wasn't for acting.
Karen Greenberger was a major player in the Miami drug scene. We aren't talking about small-time deals. She was moving massive amounts of product. She eventually moved to Los Angeles, where she met Robert Evans, the legendary producer of The Godfather and Chinatown.
Evans wanted to make a movie called The Cotton Club. He needed money. Karen introduced him to Roy Radin, a vaudeville promoter who had plenty of cash but a "difficult" reputation.
The deal went south. Radin was kidnapped and murdered in 1983. His body was found in a canyon, shot multiple times and blown up with dynamite to hide his identity. It took years for the law to catch up, but in 1991, Karen Greenberger was convicted of second-degree murder and kidnapping.
Life Behind Bars and the LWOP Sentence
When the gavel came down in October 1991, things looked bleak for Karen. The jury didn't go for first-degree murder, which might have meant the death penalty back then, but they didn't let her off easy either.
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She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole (LWOP).
If you're wondering how someone with an LWOP sentence could ever be "alive and well" in the sense of a free person, there’s a bit of a legal nuance there. In the California court system, "life without parole" is usually pretty definitive. She was sent to the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla.
She's spent over 30 years in the system.
Is Karen Greenberger Still Alive in 2026?
According to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) records and the lack of any death notices in major archives, Greenberger is still alive.
She would be in her late 70s now.
Life in Chowchilla isn't exactly a retirement home. It’s the largest female correctional facility in the United States. It's tough. It's crowded. But Karen has always been a survivor. Back in the early 90s, she gave interviews where she claimed she’d found religion. She even talked about wanting to become a prison chaplain.
Whether that was a genuine change of heart or a tactical move for a potential appeal is something only she knows.
Why the Confusion About Her Status?
People often get her confused with other "black widows" of that era. There’s also the fact that her name changed so often. Born Karen DeLayne Jacobs, she went by Lanie Greenberger after marrying Larry Greenberger (a high-level drug trafficker who died under very suspicious circumstances himself).
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When a person with multiple identities goes into the prison system, they basically vanish from public record.
- She isn't on Twitter.
- She isn't doing podcast interviews.
- She is a number in a database.
Unless there is a major health crisis or a clemency breakthrough, an inmate like Greenberger stays "invisible" until a formal notice is filed. As of right now, no such notice exists for her.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Case
There’s a common myth that she was the "mastermind" who pulled all the strings.
While she was definitely a key player, the reality was a mess of competing egos. You had Robert Evans trying to save his career, Roy Radin trying to buy his way into Hollywood, and hitmen like William Mentzer who were ready to pull the trigger for the right price.
Karen was the bridge. She was the one who brought the money and the muscle together.
Some people think she was eventually released on a technicality. That’s actually not true. While there were appeals—specifically People v. Greenberger (1997)—the core of her conviction for kidnapping and murder held up. The legal battles were more about whether certain statements from her co-defendants should have been allowed in court.
She didn't walk free. She stayed put.
The Reality of Aging in the California System
If she is still in Chowchilla, her day-to-day is likely very quiet. Older inmates often move to medical wings or specialized housing as they age.
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There has been a push in California recently for "elder parole" for long-term inmates, but that usually excludes people with LWOP sentences. For Karen to get out, it would likely require a direct act of clemency from the Governor, which is rare for high-profile murder cases involving the "Cotton Club" level of notoriety.
So, where does that leave us?
Basically, Karen Greenberger is a living ghost of a Hollywood era that no longer exists. An era of "cocaine cowboys" and back-alley movie deals.
If you are looking for her today, you won't find her in a mansion in Miami. You’ll find her name on a roster in a California prison, serving out a sentence for a crime that defined the dark side of the 80s.
What You Can Do Next
If you’re interested in the deeper details of the case, you should look into the original trial transcripts or the book The Cotton Club Murder by Milton Bearden. It gives a much more granular look at the drug deals that led to Radin’s death. You can also check the CDCR Inmate Locator website periodically if you want to verify her current housing location, though you’ll need her inmate ID number or full legal name (Karen DeLayne Greenberger) to get a result.
The story of Lanie Jacobs is a reminder that in Hollywood, the price of a producer credit is sometimes much higher than anyone expects.
Actionable Insight: For those researching historical criminal cases, always cross-reference names. Because Greenberger used so many aliases (Lanie Jacobs, Karen DeLayne, etc.), news reports from the 80s and 90s may use different identifiers. Use her legal conviction name for the most accurate modern records.