Mafia Widow Robin Colombo Is the Best Part of HBO's 'McMillion$'

If you've been keeping up with the new HBO documentary series, McMillion$, you have no doubt become enthralled with the cast of delightful characters that include zany FBI agents, unwitting "contestants," and Italian mob bosses.

One of McMillion$ more colorful (literally) characters is Robin Colombo, wife of Gennaro "Jerry" Colombo. Dressed in red from head to toe, Robin details the crazy antics of her late husband Jerry, as he worked with Uncle Jerry (ex-cop Jerry Jacobson), to operate the $24 million McDonald's Monopoly scam and find its many "winners."

But aside from being Jerry Colombo's wife, what was Robin's connection to the McMillion$ scam and what has she been up to since the scandal broke? We investigate to find out.

"The first time I met Jerry, we looked at each other and it was like the chemistry between us was crazy," Robin says about the first time she met the man who would become her husband. "I was having a long-distance relationship with a federal agent, who was not that fun."

"And um, Jerry was fun. So I chose him," she adds. The couple was soon engaged and married in Panama City, Fla., although they kept the nuptials small and out of the Catholic church since Robin was already pregnant.

After Jerry became involved with Uncle Jerry and their fraudulent scheme was well underway, Robin got involved on the distribution side. Basically, Uncle Jerry would steal the winning pieces, then Jerry and his wife Robin would distribute the pieces to "winners" they selected.

Robin tells the camera that she just wanted "to make people happy," at the top of Episode 3. She chose the winners based on who she felt needed the money, and among the lucky million-dollar winners, Robin chose her own father, Buddy Fisher, and her friend, Gloria Brown.

After the scheme fell apart in 2001, Robin was among the 21 people who were indicted by the FBI as a result of Operation Final Answer. She was initially charged with multiple counts of mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. She was eventually sentenced to 18 months in prison, which she served at the Tallahassee Federal Correctional Institution.

The only reason Jerry Colombo didn't end up in jail himself is that he was involved in a 1998 car accident with Robin and their son, Francesco. While Robin and her son survived the crash, Jerry succumbed to complications from his injuries.

While she was behind bars, Robin, like many other inmates, turned to God and began reading the Bible. In 2006, she published her life story and her account of the McDonald's affair in a memoir called From a Mafia Widow to God's Child.

Her book is slated to be re-released following the airing of the docu-series, with new details from Robin's life included in the re-writes. As she says on her Instagram page, Robin is now the "author of Mafia Widow, on sale after March 9," following the final episode of McMillion$. "Then it's full force," she writes.

We can't wait to read all the juicy details, but until March 9, we will be enjoying the McMillion$ docu-series, which airs Monday evenings on HBO.