Ron austin aspen attorney photoshoot

Before Aspen became a celebrity playground for the likes of Goldie Hawn and Michael Douglas, Vladimir ”Spider” Sabich and Claudine Longet were the glammest bunnies the Colorado town had to offer.

Parisian-born Longet, a recording artist and former Folies-Bergere dancer who’d once been wed to Andy Williams, embodied the chicness of L.A. and Europe; Sabich was an Olympic skier-turned-professional champion. The couple, who lived with Longet’s three children from her marriage to Williams, were, as Longet once said, ”everything that a man and woman should be to each other.”

History might disagree: On March 21, 1976, Longet killed her lover with a single bullet to the stomach.

Photo of ron austin

It was, she claimed, a terrible accident.

As Longet would later testify in court — where a weeping Williams offered support — she had followed Sabich into the bathroom and asked him to show her how to use his gun.

Without warning, the gun went off. The prosecution thought differently, but was s