THE FBI INVESTIGATED ANNA NICOLE SMITH IN A MURDER PLOT!

The feds investigated Anna Nicole Smith for her role in a plot to kill her tycoon husband's son but dropped the probe for lack of evidence before she died of a drug overdose in 2007, FBI records show.
The former Playboy Playmate's FBI records, obtained by the Associated Press, show that agents investigated Smith in 2000 and 2001 in a murder-for-hire plot against E. Pierce Marshall.

Marshall fought for years in court to keep the busty blonde from collecting his late father's estate, an oil fortune valued in the hundreds of millions.

The younger Marshall died in 2006 of natural causes.

Vast sections of the 100 pages of FBI materials released under the Freedom of Informatin Act - a fraction of Smith's full file - were whited out, and no evidence of her involvement in such a plot is detailed, the Associated Press reported.

When agents interviewed Smith in July 2000, she "began crying and denied ever making such plans," one report noted.

"Smith adamantly denied ever contemplating such a crime," an agent wrote.

Prosecutors ultimately agreed to drop the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sally Meloch wrote the FBI on April 26, 2001 that she had "determined that there is insufficient evidence to establish that there was a murder-for-hire plot by Ms. Smith to kill Pierce Marshall."

An attorney for Smith's estate, Kent Richland, was surprised by the investigation.
"I have not heard anything about that," he said.

An attorney for the Marshall estate declined comment.

Smith married the 89-year-old J. Howard Marshall II, owner of Great Northern Oil Co., in 1994 when she was 26 and a topless dancer at a Texas strip club.

Forbes estimated Marshall's fortune in 1992 as $550 million.

He died of natural causes in 1995. His son died in 2006 at age 67 of an infection. Smith died of a drug overdose a year later at age 39 after collapsing in her South Florida hotel room.

Smith's lawyer and companion Howard K. Stern and two doctors, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, were charged in California with helping the model obtain drugs that ultimately killed her. All have pleaded not guilty.

The FBI files include agents' notes in spiral-bound notebooks, accounts of Smith's past arrests for drunken driving and battery, and an interview of the younger Marshall.

The files reveal that a .357 Smith and Wesson revolver was confiscated from Smith's home, along with a 3 1/2-inch stainless-steel knife and, for reasons that were not explained, a black and orange hat described as "Dr. Seuss." The seized objects were returned to her about seven months later.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 2006 that Smith could pursue her late husband's fortune, overturning an appellate decision. Smith's mother, Stern and another boyfriend continue to fight over control of the estate, which will ultimately will go to Smith's daughter, now age 3.